Daniel Ricciardo Tells Jacques Villeneuve to ‘Eat Sh*t’

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Daniel Ricciardo answered his critics on the track Saturday in Canada. A day after 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve wondered why Ricciardo is still in Formula 1 Ricciardo put down his best qualifying effort since Miami, charging into Q3 and securing a fifth-place start for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The result was not only his best starting spot since Mexico last year but ahead of his RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda who just hours earlier had announced a contract extension with the team for 2025.

Ricciardo was of course asked about the comments from Villeneuve on the same network, Sky Sports F1, that Villeneuve works for and where the Canadian said the day prior.

“Why is he still in F1?” Villeneuve said Friday. “Why? We’re hearing the same thing now for the last four or five years, ‘we have to make the car better for him, poor him’. Sorry, it’s been five years of that, no, you’re in F1.”

“I’ve just been told [about the comments],” Ricciardo said. “I don’t listen or read but… yeah, there’s definitely some people out there who… Yeah, whatever. I won’t give them the time of day, but yeah, top five, been quick all weekend, we’re less than two-tenths from pole so… eat s**t!”

In another ironic twist, Ricciardo’s qualifying effort comes on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named for Jacques Villeneuve’s father.

“I’m very pleased, I’m pretty jacked certainly,” Ricciardo said. “It’s been a really good weekend, it’s been one of those weekends where I certainly haven’t really had any doubts. It’s one of those ones where everything’s been feeling good.”

Ricciardo also scored the first of his eight career wins at the track in 2014.

“But it’s just a track I enjoy, and 10 years ago to the day that changed my life, my first win here, so there’s always just that feel-good factor coming back,” he said.

“But the track’s great, it’s kind of like a go-kart track, the way we wrestle the cars over the kerbs – it reminds us probably a little bit of our childhood. So, a lot of good things.”