Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has questioned why Aussie Daniel Ricciardo is still in F1 and believes his image has ultimately saved his career in a savage live television rant.
The 34-year-old is desperately clinging to hope he can finish his career where it started, with Red Bull, despite the door seemingly slamming shut when the team renewing Sergio Perez’s deal earlier in the week.
After two years with Renault and another two with McLaren, Ricciardo hoped to rejoin the top team alongside Max Verstappen and had been putting pressure on the Mexican driver in 2023.
Although Perez hasn’t been outstanding and is currently fifth in the driver’s championship in 2024, his four podium finishes in eight races before the Canadian Grand Prix weekend convinced Red Bull to extend his contract for another two years.
It’s a tough blow for Ricciardo, who is six months older than Perez and now has to fight to keep his seat with the Visa Cash App RB team after a disastrous season.
Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has questioned why Daniel Ricciardo is still in F1
Ricciardo is currently driving for Visa Cash App RB and fighting to prolong his career
Now 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has gone nuclear on the Aussie driver, telling him to give up and ‘go home’.
‘Why’s he still in F1? Why?’ Villeneuve fumed on Sky Sports F1.
‘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.’
The door seemingly closed for a fairytale return to Red Bull this week when the team re-signed Sergio Perez instead
Ricciardo enjoyed plenty of success during his first stint with Red Bull, including winning the Monaco GP in 2018
Ricciardo also enjoyed one of his most famous victories in Italy when he was driving for McLaren
Asked if he thinks Ricciardo’s career is overrated, Villeneuve said: ‘I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.’
F1 fans were left stunned by the harsh assessment of Ricciardo’s career, even if he is closer to the end than the beginning.
‘It doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t change anything for me,’ Ricciardo told Sky F1 about Perez’ new deal.
‘Obviously, my goal, at some point, I’d love to be back there [at Red Bull]. But I also know that my season hasn’t been spectacular. I had a spectacular moment I think in Miami, but otherwise, I’ve been a bit up and down.
‘And look, I’ve been doing this long enough, I know myself that I want to be doing better.
‘I think already after the first few races, I was just very focused on trying to do the most I can here. And through that, then I’ll have maybe the most control over my future.
‘So up until now, yeah, I haven’t probably been awesome enough, but equally, I am happy being here and just being back in the Red Bull family.
‘So we’ll keep charging forward and yeah, I don’t think now it means it will never happen. But we’ll see.’
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