Daniel Ricciardo could be on his last legs in Formula 1, former driver Giedo van der Garde is warning.
He says that while Ricciardo's much younger and less experienced RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda leaps into contention for a promotion to Red Bull Racing next year, the 34-year-old Australian could soon be ousted.
Van der Garde was speaking to the DRS De Race Show podcast just a few days after Ricciardo's situation only worsened at Suzuka with a lap-1 crash into the barriers with Williams' Alex Albon.
Whilst arguably just a normal racing incident, the Dutchman said: "When you are under pressure and driving very tensely, you let people pass you and you make mistakes. And then you get hit and you go into the wall."
Red Bull's influential consultant Dr Helmut Marko told Speed Week this week that the reason Ricciardo got off to a slow start at Suzuka "was the hard tyres".
"But Ricciardo was overly cautious in the first corner anyway and was overtaken left and right. Then came the racing accident, which can easily happen," said the Austrian.
In contrast, Marko said of Tsunoda: "He got off to a sensational start and his overtaking moves were the show of the day. The fans were absolutely thrilled.
"His weekend was on par with a Max or an Alonso. Error free, a super performance under the pressure of his home race."
Van der Garde predicts: "If this continues, it will take a few more races like that and then Liam Lawson will be in that (Ricciardo) car. Things will move quickly.
"He's a nice guy and a really good driver, but we see now that he's a little short against Yuki. He was also a little short against Max (Verstappen), and a little short against Lando Norris.
"You see he starts to doubt himself and wonder whether he's still got it. The confidence drops and everyone starts talking about him. If you can't break that cycle, you're done."
