Former F1 champion blasts Daniel Ricciardo's 'terrible' career

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve blasts Daniel Ricciardo’s chances of getting a drive for 2023 and says almost HALF of Aussie’s career has been ‘terrible’

• Jacques Villeneuve describes almost half of Daniel Ricciardo’s career as ‘terrible’
• Former F1 world champ isn’t surprised Ricciardo isn’t sought after by teams
• Villeneuve is critical of the Aussie potentially taking a year away from the sport

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has given a brutal assessment of Daniel Ricciardo’s career, saying almost half of it has been ‘terrible’ and as he questioned why any team would chase the Aussie’s signature.  

Ricciardo’s last four seasons of Formula 1 have been underwhelming to say the least, and he currently sits in 14th on the drivers’ championship standings with just 19 points.

The unwanted 33-year-old was recently ousted by McLaren in favour of compatriot Oscar Piastri despite having a season to run on his huge $20million-per-year contract – leaving him without a spot on the grid for 2023.

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has given a brutal assessment of Daniel Ricciardo’s career, saying almost half of it has been ‘terrible’

Ricciardo (pictured after failing to finish at the Italian Grand Prix) has struggled badly over his four last seasons of Formula 1 

With options drying up fast, Ricciardo has been linked to Williams and Haas, while it emerged recently that the Perth driver may also take a 12 month sabbatical from the sport.

When asked if he was surprised the embattled Aussie was not being picked up by a team, Villeneuve’s response was blunt.

‘Why would he be?’ the 1997 world champion told F1 TV.

‘He had two terrible years at Renault and two even more terrible years at McLaren. That’s four years. Almost half of his Formula 1 career was bad.

‘Alpine have no reason to take him, especially when he’s driven there before.

‘The modern cars just don’t seem to suit his driving style.

Villeneuve says the modern cars don’t suit Ricciardo’s driving style

‘He was impressive at Red Bull. He showed amazing overtaking manoeuvres. He was ahead of Max at the beginning. But in the end Max started to get a handle on him.

‘Then he switched. And after the switch something seems to have happened that he never managed to get a handle on. He never recovered from that.’

Villeneuve was also critical of the idea of Ricciardo having a year away from the sport and returning in 2024.

‘It could make him lazy,’ he explained.

‘You can take a year off if you’re an Alonso, a Schumacher, if you’ve been world champion and won a lot of races, if you know in the paddock that you’ll always be at your best, no matter what season. After four bad years, don’t do that.

Villeneuve was critical of the idea of Ricciardo having a year away from the sport and returning in 2024, saying it could make the Aussie ‘lazy’.

‘You take what you can get. If you have an offer to drive in Formula 1, then you take every cockpit. In public you will say you don’t want to drive for one of the back teams, but if that’s the only contract you can get, then you’ll sign it.’

The Aussie has been linked with Haas, but principal Guenther Steiner highlighted Ricciardo’s lack of form when asked about his chances of joining the F1 team. 

‘I’ve talked to most of the potential drivers, which is my job,’ he said at Monza.

‘There’s nothing concrete yet, but we only want to take the smallest risks for the development of the team. You can take a big risk which is great when it works, but it’s bad when it doesn’t.

 Haas’ team principal Guenther Steiner highlighted Ricciardo’s lack of form when asked about his chances of joining the F1 team

‘There are none of those [experienced and technical drivers] who are currently on the market. Except maybe Daniel, but his form isn’t great at the moment and we don’t know what he’s going to do. Maybe he’ll sit out a year.

The F1 season resumes on October 2 at the Singapore Grand Prix. 

Source: Read Full Article