Villeneuve shares new sneer at Ricciardo: 'It's very childish'

Villeneuve was a guest in Canada as an analyst on Sky Sports throughout the weekend. There, he voiced his criticism of Ricciardo on Friday. Among other things, he questioned why he is still in Formula 1 and argued that the Australian owes his seat to his image. Ricciardo qualified fifth the following day, after which he made some statements back in the media.

Villeneuve issues fresh criticism of Ricciardo

A week later, the Canadian is not letting it rest there. Speaking to CryptoSportsBetting, he told what he thought of the whole situation in Canada. ''Ultimately, the results have not been there. He was really good at Red Bull and since he left them, it's been very difficult and his return hasn't been flamboyant. Obviously I got under his skin because it made him go faster and even Christian Horner thought that it gave him a bit of a boost and maybe he needed that. At least he got a lot of media mileage out of this."

''It's completely unprofessional and has nothing to do with the business and it can be personally insulting which is amazing,'' Villeneuve continued. "I can't imagine Daniel saying that to other media so that's weird. If he says that someone hit his head playing ice hockey, how constructive and how professional is that? It's very childish and people like Daniel are role models and they think that's the right way to act.''

''I found that really strange when someone says I don't care what people say. You need to have tough skin, in F1 you will be criticised and you have to take it. Don't say something childish and insulting.I have no idea why Daniel Ricciardo is so protected but he has a huge aura around him. Good for him but imagine if he could back that up with results? He's not lived up to expectations and he's not consistent so he knows he's not up to speed and he hasn't had results that have been good enough. It's that simple.'' said the one-time world champion.

This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.