Martin Brundle ‘wishes’ Daniel Ricciardo hadn’t made one ’emotional and flawed’ career decision

Follow us on Google Discover

Daniel Ricciardo found himself in the headlines at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend. This was the result of scathing criticism from 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Villeneuve started by landing an implicit dig at Ricciardo over his helmet design change. The RB driver adopted a maple-syrup-inspired lid for the race in Montreal.

The Canadian called for him to focus instead on his deficit to his teammate. Indeed, Yuki Tsunoda has comfortably out-performed so far this season.

It was telling that, while RB announced Tsunoda would be staying ahead of qualifying on Saturday, Ricciardo’s future remains undecided. Villeneuve went onto question why the 34-year-old is ‘still in F1’ at all (F1 Show) after a prolonged period of underwhelming performances.

But Ricciardo responded with perhaps his strongest weekend of the year so far. He reached Q3 for just the second time in 2024 and then delivered the team’s best qualifying result of the season (P5).

Somewhat inevitably, he fell back on race day, hampered by a five-second penalty for a startline infringement. But he still managed to bring home four points in eighth, while Tsunoda finished down in 14th after a costly spin.

Martin Brundle wishes Daniel Ricciardo had never left Red Bull

Writing in his column for Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle offered his take on Villeneuve’s rant. He sympathises with Ricciardo, but admits his best results in F1 ‘were quite a while ago’.

Brundle feels that he made a career-defining error by leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018. Remaining alongside Max Verstappen would have forced him to raise his level.

Instead, he hasn’t been ‘the same driver’ since from the psychological standpoint. He left Renault after two years, and was then dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022 after struggling against Lando Norris.

• READ MORE: Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

“For the record, as it’s become a hot topic due to my Sky Sports F1 colleague Jacques Villeneuve expressing his firm opinions, I have fundamental respect for all F1 drivers, not least for Daniel and Jacques, because I know how hard it is to drive such fearsome cars under that spotlight,” Brundle said.

“Daniel has won eight GPs including an outstanding Monaco victory, scored 32 podiums, and has regularly shown world-class talent. But those results were quite a while ago and I wish he’d not left Red Bull at the end of 2018.

“That was an emotional and flawed decision. He should have faced up to Max in the best car, then he’d have necessarily raised his game even further.

“Ricciardo never seemed to be quite the same driver again. He clearly still does have speed and race craft, as we witnessed also in the Miami Sprint, but something in his psyche or approach is holding that back and it’s costing him opportunity and longevity.”

How Ricciardo reacted to Jacques Villeneuve ‘roasting’

Ricciardo wasn’t able to escape the publicity around Villeneuve’s comments. They could either have dented his confidence, or fired him up.

Fortunately for RB, they seemed to have the latter effect. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner noted that he looked particularly ‘motivated’ after the ‘roasting’ he received.

The key for Ricciardo, though, is to follow this up with more strong results. Indeed, the last time he scored points in Miami (with a brilliant run to P4 in the Sprint), he went three races without a top-10 finish.

He’s now up to 12th in the championship, which is broadly where he should be given the pace of his car. Tsunoda is still 10 points up the road, but with RB scoring on a consistent basis, that deficit is far from unassailable.

Crucially, Ricciardo retains the support of senior figures at Red Bull despite his broadly disappointing start to the year. He’s still the favourite for the seat alongside Tsunoda, even with reserve driver Liam Lawson lurking in the background.