Ricciardo and the dissing with Villeneuve: “I would never speak badly of a driver”

Montreal: Villeneuve vs Ricciardo

During the first part of this season, more precisely on the occasion of the Canadian Grand Prixtensions had arisen at a distance between the 1997 world champion, Jacques VilleneuveAnd Daniel Ricciardo. The Canadian, often harsh in expressing judgments on a certain driver or situation, had in fact believed that the #3 of Racing Bulls was still in Formula 1 more for his image than for the results achieved in recent years. Comments not at all digested by the Australian, who at the end of the qualifying in Montreal had responded in kind to Villeneuve with an offensive and vulgar joke towards him.

Disappointment with the comments

A reply that had generated subsequent exchanges between the two, which then calmed down over the months. Now that Formula 1 is experiencing the summer break and the situation has calmed down, Ricciardo had the opportunity to return to what happened with Villeneuve in an interview given to Mirror Sportsspecifying how much those criticisms had particularly disappointed him and how Ricciardo himself would not make certain comments: “In Montreal Jacques talked about some things and there were some episodes where i felt guilty – He admitted – I said to myself: ‘Well, if you want to test me, let’s go.’ I think I have reacted well to some of these things. I don’t usually read the comments, but the team keeps us updated to prepare me for things that have been said. It makes me work. Even if it’s a world champion, in Jacques’ case, it’s someone who knows the sport. I could make comments about other pilots and say: ‘Yes, he’s had a bad time,’ but I would never speak badly of someone because I can understand and I know what he went through. I was more than anything disappointedbut I thought: ‘If anyone thinks that way, it’s time to remind them that I’m still here.’ I used it to my advantage, but that’s okay. I know people have opinions. I just thought: ‘Don’t get nervous, use it as a stimulus.’

The turning point from Montreal

A motivation that actually brought good results to the Australian from that weekend onwards, with a constant growth that even led Ricciardo to be indicated as the main candidate for the role of Max Verstappen’s teammate if Red Bull had terminated the contract with Sergio Perez, which then did not happen: “Canada was definitely a major turning point. – he added – in China I had the new chassis and Miami worked better. I had a couple of races that weren’t so good and then in Canada there was a lot at stake. There was already talk of me losing my seat and I said to myself: ‘Okay, everything I’ve done so far this year, for whatever reason, hasn’t worked out the way I wanted it to – I have to try to change some things,’”