Villeneuve, who broadside at Ricciardo: “Why is he still in F1?”

Daniel Ricciardo is in his 14th season in Formula 1 since debuting in 2011 and his future in the category is more in doubt than ever. He fails to perform and, at almost 35 years old, could find himself without a place if Red Bull decides to insert the young Liam Lawson in his place in Racing Bulls.

The Australian is the subject of debate in the paddock and on Friday, on the first day of the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, he was talked about on Sky Sports, where the 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve lashed out against him.

In an intervention that has already gone viral on social media, Jacques Villeneuve, son of the driver after whom the Montreal circuit is named (Gilles Villeneuve), analyzes what he believes has been a career full of excuses, and does not hesitate to send Ricciardo “home “.

“Why is he still in F1?” began Villeneuve about Ricciardo. “We’ve been hearing the same thing for four or five years. ‘We have to improve the car for him, poor him’. I’m sorry, it’s been like this for five years. No, you’re in F1. Maybe we can make this effort for someone like Lewis Hamilton, who has won several world championships. You don’t make this effort for a driver who has never done it.”

“If you can’t do it, go home, there’s someone else who can take your place. It’s always been like that in racing. It’s the pinnacle of motorsport. There’s no reason to keep making excuses.”

Villeneuve recalled when Ricciardo scored more points than Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull in 2014 (238-167) or Max Verstappen in 2016 (220-191 in the part of the season in which they were together), even if the truth is that he achieved more points than Verstappen also in 2017 (200-168). But he also underlined that they were isolated cases with respect to the continuation of his career.

“And we will talk about that first season or those first two seasons,” the Canadian continued. “He beat a Vettel who was burnt out, who was trying to invent things with the car to win again, who was making a mess. And then he beat Verstappen for half a season, when Verstappen was 18 and just starting out. And since then he stopped beating anyone.”

Finally, when asked if his career could be said to be overrated, he concluded: “I think it’s his image that keeps him in Formula 1, rather than his actual results.”