Former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has ripped into Daniel Ricciardo ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, arguing the Australian driver doesn’t deserve his spot on the grid.
Ricciardo, a seven-time F1 race winner, is currently embroiled in a three-horse race with Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda and reserve driver Liam Lawson for a seat next year. However, Tsunoda has consistently outperformed the 34-year-old throughout the 2024 season, notching 14 more points than Ricciardo in the opening eight races.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo’s dream of reviving his partnership with reigning champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull was crushed earlier this weekend when Mexican driver Sergio Perez penned a two-year contract extension.
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Danny Ric’s Red Bull dreams dashed | 00:27
Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 world champion, didn’t mince his words while discussing Ricciardo’s chances of earning a seat in 2025.
“Why’s he still in F1? Why?” Villeneuve told Sky Sports on Friday.
“We are hearing the same thing now for the last four or five years. ‘We have to make the car better for him’. Sorry, it’s been five years of that. No, you are in F1.
“Maybe you make that effort for Lewis Hamilton whose won multiple championships. You don’t make that effort for a driver who can’t cut it.
“If you can’t cut it, go home, there’s someone else to take your place. That’s how it’s always been in racing, it’s the pinnacle of the sport.
“There’s no reason to keep going and to keep finding excuses, and you all talk about that first season or first two seasons, he was beating a Vettel that was burnt out, that was trying to invent things with the car to go win and just making a mess of his weekends.
“Then he was beating for half a season Verstappen when Verstappen was 18 years old, just starting, that was it, he stopped beating anyone after that.
“I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.”
The Canadian Grand Prix gets underway at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Monday morning at 4am AEST.