Jacques Villeneuve has recently been stirring the pot in the Formula 1 community. Early in the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, he unleashed a barrage of criticism against Daniel Ricciardo, accusing him of making excuses and suggesting he should leave the sport if he couldn’t compete.
However, Ricciardo silenced the criticism by qualifying fifth in Montreal and scoring his first points of the season on a Sunday. Now, the 1997 champion has shifted his attention to another driver – Lewis Hamilton. Villeneuve has compared Hamilton’s current struggles to those of Sebastian Vettel during his post-championship years at Red Bull.
Just as Vettel was outperformed by a young Daniel Ricciardo, Villeneuve believes Hamilton is now being overshadowed by his younger teammate, George Russell.
“George has been the better driver since the moment he joined Mercedes,” said the Canadian former driver, as quoted by GP Blog. “He [Lewis Hamilton] has won so much and when you don’t win, it can be boring and frustrating.”
“The same thing happened when Daniel Ricciardo came to sit alongside Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull. Ricciardo looked great that year. Vettel was on par, suddenly didn’t win, and was trying to reinvent himself.”
: Jacques Villeneuve criticizes Lewis Hamilton, comparing his form to Vettel’s struggles. The former champion suggests George Russell has outshone Hamilton at Mercedes, amid Hamilton’s disappointing season with no podiums and his worst F1 standing.
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Villeneuve had previously used the same analogy to put down Ricciardo, implying that the Aussie could only outshine a champion like Vettel because the latter wasn’t at his best and experimenting with different approaches to regain his winning form.
Daniel Ricciardo should never have left Red Bull
During his early Red Bull days, Ricciardo was one of the most promising young talents on the grid. He was often unbeatable on his best days, and even after Vettel moved to Ferrari, the Australian continued to excel even against the generational talent – Max Verstappen.
However, Ricciardo’s career took a downward turn when he left Red Bull for Renault, and later moved to McLaren. His stint at McLaren was particularly disappointing, leading the team to release him even before his initial contract of three years ran out.
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Despite this, Ricciardo has shown glimpses of his former brilliance. His fourth-place finish in the Miami sprint race, where he fended off a faster Ferrari driven by Carlos Sainz, and his strong qualifying performance in Canada are recent examples of why he was once so highly regarded.
While the Honey Badger will have to consistently live with this thought of not leaving Red Bull in hindsight, he has his work cut out to save his place in F1 for 2025.
