Villeneuve reflects on criticising Ricciardo: 'Said what everyone thought'
F1 News
During the Canadian GP of this season, Jacques Villeneuve did not shy away from criticising heavily Daniel Ricciardo. The former world champion now revisited the topic.
Jacques Villeneuve doesn't mince his words when gives an interview about the current talking points in F1 or when he joins a broadcaster as a pundit. The 1997 world champion was especially critical of Daniel Ricciardo, and shared his verdict on Sky Sports earlier this year about the Australian driver during the weekend in Montreal.
Ricciardo was eventually replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore GP, and now, the driver from New Zealand will become Verstappen's teammate in 2025 after earning another promotion and getting the seat of Sergio Perez. Ricciardo himself was not capable of achieving that after he was substituted in for Nyck de Vries in 2023.
According to Villeneuve, he is not happy because Ricciardo is no longer in the competition. "It never crossed my mind that I wanted to be proven right. It got a lot of reaction, a lot of negative and some positive. It got a lot of people discussing the subject openly. It's not a question of destroying someone, but you have to look at reality. I think people realised, 'Okay, Jacques has a fair point, let's discuss it in depth', and that happened. That's what I'm happy about," the Canadian began to Mirror Sport via SportsCasting.
He added: "My feelings wouldn't be any different if Daniel Ricciardo stayed at Red Bull. I'm not saying, 'Oh, I'm happy now he's left F1'. I'm just glad to have brought reality to the fore." The Canadian also explained that it is not easy to remain neutral, but was happy he could back up his feelings about that situation when he was on air. "You want to make sure you give enough food for thought and enough food to make sure discussions happen. That's what I'm glad about."
'I just said what everybody was thinking'
About Ricciardo himself, Villeneuve is glad that his criticism did not do any harm to his image. "Daniel still has a great image and a great career, it hasn't done him any damage. It was just a conversation about the racing industry which has got a bit side-tracked about what's important. It was a case of saying what everybody was thinking. It's not about me feeling vindicated about him being out of F1 or not," he concluded.
While the Australian was rumoured to Cadillac by the media, he also clearly signalled at a fan event that he no longer will drive in the competition. "No, I'm done," Ricciardo underlined, gesturing the same with his hands.
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