Formula 1’s return after the summer break has gone from bad to worse for Daniel Ricciardo. After (slightly) shattering his left hand in an unavoidable accident on Friday, Helmut Marko may have just shattered any hopes Ricciardo might’ve had of achieving his “fairytale” in 2024. Let’s go one at a time. During Free Practice 2, Ricciardo followed Oscar Piastri into the Turn 3 barriers. Before crashing, he didn’t take his hands off the steering wheel and broke a metacarpal bone in his left hand. With the fracture writing him off for at least three weeks, he has even less time to prove he’s good enough for Red Bull. This brings us to the other shattering.

Since Ricciardo’s sacking from McLaren and eventual hiring as Red Bull’s reserve driver, the Aussie has expressed his intent on returning to the second seat in Red Bull. Considering the 34-year-old is at the fag end of his career, he’s calling that possibility his “fairytale ending.” Unfortunately for him, Marko has given his verdict against Ricciardo.

Daniel Ricciardo isn’t a threat to Sergio Perez for 2024

If you’re wondering how Sergio Perez’s name is of any consequence in Ricciardo’s charade, he is who the Honey Badger is trying to replace. As soon as possible, especially given the uncompetitiveness of his car at AlphaTauri. This season hasn’t been great for Perez, with him struggling to extract consistent performances that can help the team. Even though he’s contracted to drive for Red Bull until 2024, no one can be entirely sure of their safety in F1, and that put the Mexican under threat from Ricciardo. This is exactly what Helmut Marko said during a recent interview.

In a conversation with the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, Marko said, “Nothing is 100 percent certain in Formula 1. It just doesn’t exist. There are always performance-related situations somewhere that need to be discussed. We’ll take a look and discuss how to proceed in Zandvoort. Then we’ll know more. Of course, the goal is to go into the next season with Checo, but he has to deliver for that.” [Translated by Google] Perez’s performance compared to Ricciardo can’t be determined at the Dutch GP for obvious reasons. Despite that, Perez’s qualifying showing (once again) was nothing to write home about.

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That should’ve given Ricciardo hope. However, in another interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Marko revealed that “everything is clear” for 2024, suggesting that Perez will remain in his seat, contradicting what he said to Kleine Zeitung. On top of this, Christian Horner and Franz Tost made Ricciardo’s current situation even worse.

Daniel Ricciardo is looking at a long road to recovery

With Marko putting his Red Bull future up in the air, Horner and Tost have made Ricciardo question his AlphaTauri future during the coming weeks. AlphaTauri Team Principal Tost said, “Normal recovery for a normal person is up to six weeks, but he is a Formula 1 driver, and I hope this process will be shortened because we would like to have him in the car.” Six weeks is a long time for Ricciardo, especially considering he has just nine races after the Dutch GP to prove himself. Six weeks would mean he’d miss the next three races. 

When Horner talked about Ricciardo’s recovery, he said, “A normal human being would take about 10-12 weeks, but we know these guys aren’t normal. Is it going to be three weeks? A month or six weeks? No one really knows. At the back of his mind, he has probably got Singapore as the target, which is one of the toughest circuits on the calendar.” F1’s trip to Singapore is in three weeks, and as Horner said, it’s one of the toughest races there is. If Ricciardo isn’t fully fit to compete but still does, there are chances he might jeopardize his entire season.

Watch This Story: Will Daniel Ricciardo Get Swapped in for Sergio Perez at Red Bull? 

What do you think Red Bull is making of Daniel Ricciardo’s injury? Will it be second-guessing his abilities?