Former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve has savaged Daniel Ricciardo, asking why the Australian is still racing in Formula 1.
The 1997 Championship winner made the comments to Sky Sports ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Giles Villeneuve — named after Jacques' father — in Montreal.
"Why's he still in F1? Why?" Villeneuve, 53, said during Friday's practice sessions.
"We are 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. No, you are in F1.
"Maybe you make that effort for Lewis Hamilton whose won multiple championships. You don't make that effort for a driver that can't cut it.
"If you can't cut it, go home, there's someone else to take your place. That's how it's always been in racing, it's the pinnacle of the sport.
"There's no reason to keep going and to keep finding excuses."
Ricciardo has not finished higher than 12th spot at any of this year's eight races for Red Bull's sister team, Racing Bulls.
The 34-year-old, who made his debut in F1 in 2011 and won his first race in Canada during the 2014 season in which he came third in the overall standings, is currently fighting for his career in the sport.
Despite recording 32 race podiums in his career, Ricciardo has underperformed this season, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda finishing ahead of him in all but one race.
He is battling with Tsunoda and reserve driver Liam Lawson for a seat next year.
Ricciardo is a winner of eight F1 Grands Prix, but only has one podium finish in his last 63 starts, a surprise victory at Monza in 2021.
Prior to that, he only had two third-place finishes in his previous 49 race starts.
"You all talk about that first season or first two seasons," Villeneuve, who also won the 1995 IndyCar championship, including the prestigious Indy 500 before embarking on his 165-race F1 career, said.
"He was beating a [Sebastian] Vettel that was burnt out, that was trying to invent things with the car to go win and just making a mess of his weekends.
"Then he was beating for half a season [Max] Verstappen when Verstappen was 18 years old, just starting. That was it, he stopped beating anyone after that.
"I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results."
Ricciardo was 11th fastest in Practice 1 and fifth-quickest in Practice 2 on Friday ahead of Saturday's qualifying — on both occasions going faster than Tsunoda.
The Canadian Grand Prix is the ninth of 20 races this season and gets underway at 4am on Monday morning (AEST).
