Daniel Ricciardo fires back at 'talking s**t' Jacques Villeneuve after ...

Daniel Ricciardo said Jacques Villeneuve is always “talking s**t” and suggested the Canadian had “hit his head a few too many times” following Villeneuve’s strong criticism.

The guest pundit on Sky F1 did not hold back in his assessment of Ricciardo, questioning why the Australian was even in the sport, but Ricciardo responded in the best way with a strong quali performance at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo fires back at Jacques Villeneuve

Villeneuve, appearing on Sky for his home grand prix, laid into Ricciardo, suggesting the current RB driver should “go home” and that he was not good enough to be in the sport.

But while Villeneuve’s opinion can be debated, Ricciardo responded by putting his car in P5 for this weekend’s race, RB’s best quali result of the season.

Asked what he made of Villeneuve’s comments, Ricciardo admitted he had not heard them in full but was not surprised by the nature of them.

“I heard he’s been talking s**t,” he told the media. “But he always does. I think he’s hit his head a few too many times. So I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something.

“I won’t give him the time of day but all those people can suck it. I want to say more but we’ll leave him behind.”

As to why he was able to put in a strong performance this weekend, Ricciardo said he has had confidence in the car from FP1 and has been doing a lot of self-reflection away from the track.

“From when we put it down yesterday, I just had confidence in it, the car felt good,” he elaborated. “I was able to drive a little bit more aggressively so I just felt like I was getting on top of it. I felt like the car was good.

“We’re always going to be trying to perfect the car but I also have to look at myself and make sure that I’m in a good place to be able to do results like this.

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“It’s obviously been a bit harder for me to find that sweet spot this year and I look back at 10 years ago [when he won at this venue], I think it was kind of effortless.

“After Monaco, I tried to just understand, I was always looking at the on track stuff and I can brake later here or do this and that but it was like ‘okay, there are maybe some other things that are affecting my performance. Am I coming into a race weekend not feeling energised or not feeling this or that?’

“I think I just had a good little bit of self therapy after Monaco and just sat back and had a look at maybe the things I’m doing away from the track or maybe giving too much of my time to people and by the time I get to race day, I’m a little bit more flat.

“Because I know it’s in me so as I said, we’re always going to be trying to fine tune the car but deep down I know what I can do and it’s just making sure that I’m in this spot to be able to do it more often.”

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