Villeneuve understands Alpine: “Why would they want Ricciardo?”

Jacques Villeneuve doesn’t understand why Alpine is so eager to sign Daniel Ricciardo for 2023, as teammate of Esteban Ocon. The 1997 world champion believes the dynamic between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly would not work, while he has a damning verdict on Ricciardo’s career.

Alpine is looking for a new driver after Fernando Alonso announced that he would leave next year to join Aston Martin for 2023. The French team immediately announced that reserve driver Oscar Piastri would take place in Alonso’s seat, but he immediately denied that and signed a contract with McLaren shortly afterwards, where he will make his debut next year.

Gasly was reportedly the favorite to make the switch from AlphaTauri to Alpine, but the question is whether this can continue. Red Bull is struggling to provide Indycar talent Colton Herta his necessary super license, which is why Alpine is now also looking at other drivers.

Villeneuve thinks the French team will be able to get themselves out of a dire situation if they fail to sign Gasly for 2023. The 50-year-old Canadian told F1TV: “That’s the strange thing, they already have a French driver. Those two (Gasly and Ocon) don’t get along, so don’t put them together in a team, and Gasly is under contract and you have to move mountains to get him, so there’s no point. Didn’t have a very good season overall.”

Bad years Ricciardo

When Daniel Ricciardo comes up for discussion, Villeneuve is devastating for the Australian, who has to leave McLaren at the end of this season. Ricciardo left Red Bull Racing for Renault – now Alpine – at the end of 2018, scoring just two podium finishes before moving on to McLaren, where his 2021 Italian Grand Prix victory was his only tangible success.

Asked if he was surprised that Ricciardo’s name was not mentioned directly at Alpine, Villeneuve replied: “Why should he be mentioned? He has had two terrible years at Renault, two worse years at McLaren, that’s four years and how long in total has he been in F1 Almost half of his F1 career has been bad and when he drove for Renault and McLaren he had the experience so there is no reason to want him especially not for a team where he has already ridden before.”

“It seems the modern cars don’t suit his driving style because he was impressive at Red Bull, he did great overtaking, he was in charge of Max Verstappen, but Max was new to F1 and towards the end of the season Max started to get over him and then he left with his tail between his legs. After that he never went back to his old self.”