Daniel Ricciardo returns to F1 action this weekend aware that there may be more at stake than simply getting to grips with his AlphaTauri car once more.
Ricciardo has been sidelined since August's Dutch Grand Prix, where he broke his hand in seven places after sliding off into the barriers during a free practice session.
The Australian race winner's mid-season return to F1 was a surprising one to begin with, and his injury lay-off has only added to the strangeness of his 2023 season.
Ricciardo was drafted in to replace the underperforming Nyck de Vries, after spending the first half of the season as Red Bull's third driver below world champion Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
With Perez now experiencing some severe form struggles of his own, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Ricciardo may have an opportunity to claim the Red Bull seat before too long - perhaps even for the 2024 season.
READ HERE: Sex Pistols And Schumacher: Peter Collins On A Crazy Decade Covering F1
F1: Perez under growing pressure as Daniel Ricciardo returns
Daniel Ricciardo has been out with injury since breaking bones in his hand at August's Dutch Grand Prix (Photo: Shutterstock)
It's fair to say that 2023 has been a year to forget for Sergio Perez.
With his teammate romping to a third successive championship in the sister Red Bull, Perez has endured torrid struggles all year, with severe underperformance in qualifying and frequent crashes in the fastest car on the grid giving team bosses a serious headache with so much talent in the Red Bull stable.
2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg appeared on the Sky Sports F1 podcast this week, and was quizzed for his thoughts on Perez's perilous future fate.
Rosberg sympathised with the pressure on Perez to keep the title fight alive, with the German having been under similar pressure when teammates with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
Nonetheless, Rosberg went on to say that Perez's performances simply were not good enough for a team like Red Bull and that, if they did not pick up in the closing rounds, the team would have a serious call on their hands as to whether to keep the Mexican driver for 2024:
F1 fans are relying on him to keep things exciting. In a way, he let F1 fans down because he made it too easy for Verstappen...it's really, really a tough situation for him. I can really relate.
He's having such a difficult time. Qatar was a horrible weekend for him, so bad - with the best car. He really needs to find a way there, and very quickly. How he's driving now, Red Bull really need to consider even for next year.
It's a real headache they've got there. They need two top drivers in the car to score some solid points. Sergio is massively underperfomring at the moment for reasons that I struggle to understand. I know that he's a great driver, so it's very difficult to understand why he would be so far off.
One explanation is that Max is spectacular, one of the greatest of all time...but still, Sergio is too far [off].
Perez has a contract which runs until the end of the 2024 season, but Red Bull have ousted drivers in acrimonious fashion in the past - and even did so this year in axing Nyck de Vries to bring in Daniel Ricciardo.
Should Perez be cut for 2024, Ricciardo would be the leading candidate to take his seat at Red Bull. The Aussie remains the last teammate who was truly able to challenge Max Verstappen, and would relish the opportunity to have a race-winning car once again. If Ricciardo's level of performance can outshine Perez's over the last five races of the season, he may put himself in pole position to line up alongside Verstappen next year.
The performances of Ricciardo's substitute Liam Lawson only add to the pressure on Perez, with the New Zealand youngster set to be sidelined for the 2024 season due to the shortage of seats across Red Bull's two teams.
The pressure is certainly on Sergio Perez to deliver some big results in the closing rounds, with a growing sense of dread surrounding the Mexican driver's future in F1.
SEE ALSO: How Ireland's Jordan Team Made F1 History With Their First Race Win
