You almost couldn’t write it, could you? The driver who took Daniel Ricciardo’s seat at McLaren — leading to his recent absence from Formula 1 — crashing in a place that proved distracting to Ricciardo, which triggered his own shunt that then broke his hand and ruled him out once again.

Twice now Oscar Piastri has played a part in Ricciardo missing races, but in very different ways.

Bizarre coincidences aside, Piastri had built up plenty of credit in his impressive debut season so far, to such an extent that had Ricciardo not followed him into the barrier and hurt himself at Zandvoort, most would already have forgotten the rookie even crashed.

But Ricciardo doesn’t have such a luxury, despite race wins and vast experience: his recent form and McLaren struggles have left a significant question mark against his name. Red Bull is hoping to be able to remove it by seeing what he can do at AlphaTauri, and now it’ll have to wait a number of weeks to find out more.

The positive mindset is not a surprise, after Ricciardo flew straight to Barcelona a day after the crash and had surgery on Sunday to insert a metal pin and stabilise the break. But the mooted target return race of Singapore is optimistic.

There are many reasons for that, not least the amount of time bone can take to heal and the difference in injury compared to Lance Stroll‘s wrist injuries after a cycling accident at the start of this season. He too needed to let bones heal, but didn’t miss a race — his grip strength will not have been diminished to the same extent as Ricciardo’s is going to be while his hand is immobilised.

And even if both were at similar points in terms of their physical abilities at their comeback races, the challenge of Singapore — with its bumpy surface, tight and twisty sections and lack of run-off areas — compared to Bahrain, where Stroll raced after his accident, is a very different one.

An off-track moment in Bahrain generally includes a trip onto painted tarmac or at worst gravel, but a small twitch in Singapore can result in a whack against a concrete wall that will not be kind to healing bones.

If that were to lead to Ricciardo not being ready in two weeks’ time, then just seven days later it’s the immense Suzuka that awaits. While it has a little more distance between the edge of the track and most of the barriers, it’s still a high-precision venue that can bite, too. Neither circuit is exactly welcoming in terms of easing a driver back from injury.

Qatar is far more attractive as a track to return at, but by then Ricciardo would have missed four of this six races since being named as an AlphaTauri driver. Plus it’s a Sprint weekend that will give him very little time to understand his condition and any limitations before he has to lay it on the line over one lap.

And then the same challenge awaits in Austin, which is likely to be far beyond the date Ricciardo is hoping to return if his body heals as expected.