FORMULA ONE world champion Jacques Villeneuve brutally questioned why Daniel Ricciardo is still in the sport in a rant that left fans astonished.

Eight-time Grand Prix winner Ricciardo, 34, has struggled in his RB car so far this season, failing to outperform team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in all but one of the eight races.

Jacques Villeneuve was damning in his assessment of Daniel RicciardoCredit: Sky Sports

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Ricciardo has struggled for several years in F1Credit: Rex

It continues a trend of several difficult years for the Australian – who struggled at McLaren despite winning in Monza in 2021, before he failed to secure a seat for the start of the 2023 season.

And 1997 F1 world champion Villeneuve, 53, pulled no punches in his assessment of Ricciardo’s recent form.

Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: “Why’s he still in F1? Why?

“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 who 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, and you all talk about that first season or first two seasons, 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.”