Daniel Ricciardo’s ‘terrible’ career savaged by former F1 world champ Jacques Villeneuve

Former F1 world champ Jacques Villeneuve has savaged Daniel Ricciardo saying he won’t be surprised if no team wants the Aussie.

Daniel Ricciardo of Australia and McLaren

Former F1 world champ Jacques Villeneuve has savaged the skills of Aussie driver Daniel Ricciardo, saying the last four years of his career have been “terrible” and he never recovered from his decision to leave Red Bull.

Ricciardo is racing time to save his F1 career after being axed from the final year of his McLaren deal and the Perth product once rated one of the best drivers on the grid is becoming more and more maligned.

But while most in the paddock might be whispering about Ricciardo’s decline, Villeneuve was up front, questioning why any team would take on the Aussie.

“He had two terrible years at Renault and two even more terrible years at McLaren,” the 1997 world champion told F1 TV.

“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.”

Daniel Ricciardo has been on the receiving end of a brutal review from an ex star

Currently in 14th on the drivers’ standings, with a DNF in his last race at Monza - the scene of his only triumph with McLaren - Ricciardo has had four lacklustre seasons since leaving Red Bull as a genuine title contender and switching to Renault (now Alpine) and then McLaren.

“He was impressive at Red Bull. He showed amazing overtaking manoeuvres. He was ahead of Max (Verstappen) at the beginning,” Villeneuve said of the Australian’s standing over the current world champion.

“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.”

Ricciardo was recently caught on a live microphone chatting about the potential of taking a year off in 2023 if he was unable to seal a drive with a competitive team next season.

Daniel Ricciardo is yet to confirm his plans for 2023

But Villeneuve said that would be unwise.

“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,” he said.

“After four bad years don’t do that.

“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.”

Ricciardo, now 33, has six races left to save his career and will be looking to lift himself from 14th place when the next round starts in Singapore later this month, a circuit at which he has been on the podium in the past.