Daniel Ricciardo was criticised heavily by Jacques Villeneuve (Image: Getty)
has revealed that Jacques Villeneuve’s comments at the Canadian Grand Prix helped to briefly resurrect ’s form amid a debate between himself and over the Australian’s immediate future.
Heading into the Canadian GP weekend, Ricciardo was still searching for his first top-10 finish of the season in a Grand Prix with his only points of the campaign until that point coming in the Miami sprint race. Such underwhelming form attracted the attention of 1997 world champion Villeneuve.
The 53-year-old, who was on punditry duty for Sky Sports F1 that weekend, said: “Why is he still in F1? We’re hearing the same thing now for the last four, five years — we have to make it better for him, poor him. It’s been five years of that.
“Maybe you make that effort for , who’s won multiple championships. You don’t make that effort for a driver that can’t cut it. Can’t cut it? Go home, there’s someone else who can take your place.”
These comments attracted plenty of attention and sparked significant debate within the F1 community. Ricciardo himself even responded, hitting back: “I still don’t know what he said, but I heard he’s been talking s***, but he always does.”
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Christian Horner was keen to keep Daniel Ricciardo in the car (Image: Getty)
According to Horner, Villeneuve’s comments played a role in the 35-year-old’s form improving over the following races. He recorded a P8 finish in Montreal that weekend and another top-10 finish two races later in Austria. However, the Canadian wasn’t the only one unimpressed with Ricciardo, as Marko was also keen to see him depart.
“He started the season roughly,” told the F1 Nation podcast. “Miami was a weekend of two halves, the Friday and Saturday morning was fantastic, and it looked like the Daniel of old defending against Ferraris and out-driving the car. But then the Saturday afternoon and Sunday were disastrous.
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“Even around Barcelona, Helmut wanted him out of the car, and there was already a lot of pressure on him there. But by the time we got to Montreal, it was actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve got him properly wound up, giving him a hard time.
“And it definitely fired him up because the way he drove the car that weekend, he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put together a very strong race weekend. So I said give Jacques a call every Grand Prix for the rest of the year, because whatever he said, it definitely worked.”