Ahead of the Canadian GP, Red Bull announced a new two-year contract for Sergio Perez, closing the door for now on that dream return for Ricciardo, while during the race weekend, RB confirmed Tsunoda for the 2025 season.
Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle weighed in on the spat between Daniel Ricciardo and Jacques Villeneuve across the Canadian Grand Prix, suggesting Ricciardo “never seemed the same driver again” after leaving Red Bull.
Ricciardo has found the F1 2024 campaign tough going at times, his first full season back on the grid since re-joining the Red Bull family. Ricciardo has largely struggled up against team-mate Yuki Tsunoda at second team RB leading up to the Canadian Grand Prix, a race carrying various storylines relating to his future.
Ricciardo also had some scathing criticism from 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve to contend with, which led to a verbal back and forth between the duo across the event, Villeneuve suggesting Ricciardo – who he told to “go home” – had made it “personal” with his fiery response.
Brundle was keen to stress his “respect” for both as he weighed in on the saga as part of his Sky Sports column, claiming that Ricciardo “never seemed to be quite the same driver again” after leaving Red Bull at the end of 2018, calling that a “flawed decision” as the better approach, in Brundle’s opinion, would have been for Ricciardo to stay and battle the rising star Max Verstappen.
