‘Dear old’ Jacques Villeneuve ‘properly wound up’ Daniel Ricciardo in Christian Horner reveal

Christian Horner joked with Daniel Ricciardo that he should call Jacques Villeneuve before every race after the Canadian’s brutal criticism inspired him to his best result of the season in Canada.

Villeneuve was a guest pundit for Sky at the Montreal race and didn’t hold back as he laid into Ricciardo amidst rumours his days on the grid could be numbered.

Perhaps Daniel Ricciardo should’ve listened to Christian Horner’s advice

“Why is he still in F1?” questioned the 1997 World Champion. “We’re 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.

“If you can’t cut it, go home, there’s someone else to take your place… There’s no reason to keep going and to keep finding excuses.”

He added: “I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.”

Ricciardo wasn’t impressed when asked about Villeneuve’s criticism and hit back. “I heard he’s been talking s**t,” he said. “But he always does. I think he’s hit his head a few too many times.”

And on it went with Villeneuve chastising Ricciardo for making it “personal” while the Aussie said he would “never talk s**t” about another driver like Villeneuve does.

But in the midst of it all, Ricciardo put in one of his best qualifying performances as he put his VCARB up into fifth place on the grid before racing his way to eighth, his best performance in a Grand Prix all season.

It had Horner joking with the Honey Badger that he should let Villeneuve rile him up more often.

“It was actually dear old Jacques Villeneuve who got him properly wound up while giving him a hard time,” Horner recalled on the F1 Nation podcast. “And it definitely fired him up.

“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 definitely whatever he said it definitely worked.”

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Alas, it didn’t work for very long and while Ricciardo survived a much-expected summer break cull, he was eventually dropped from the VCARB squad after the Singapore Grand Prix to make space for Liam Lawson.

Sky F1’s Rachel Brookes reckons the Canadian Grand Prix showed Ricciardo still had it when he was pushed, but couldn’t maintain it.

“Interestingly, one other thing Christian said was that in Canada this year, which we will remember, Jacques Villeneuve was very outspoken on his thoughts on Daniel,” she said of Horner’s comments.

“Christian said that actually spurred Daniel to drive the wheels off that car that weekend and put in a fantastic performance. And it kind of spurred him on to a performance they hadn’t seen since maybe Hungary the year before his injury.

“And so it felt as though if you push him, the performance is there, but then it dropped off again.”

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