The 1997 title winner is working with Sky this weekend and voiced a brutal opinion of the eight-time grand prix winner.

Ricciardo has had an up and down start to the year which, at times, has seen his position within RB drawn into question.

Those rumours have proven wide of the mark but the critics have remained, with Villeneuve among them.

“Why is he still in F1,” quizzed the Canadian on Sky Sports.

“We’re hearing the same thing now for the last 4-5 years, ‘we have to make the car better for him’, ‘poor him’.

“Sorry. It’s been 5 years of that. No. You’re in F1.

“Maybe you make that effort for a Lewis Hamilton, who’s won multiple championships, you don’t make that effort for a driver that can’t cut it.”

Ricciardo was fourth in Sprint qualifying in Miami, finishing there in the 100km encounter, but was unable to replicate that in qualifying proper or the race.

It’s a point the 34-year-old has not shied away from, acknowledging he needs to improve his consistency.

“If you can’t cut it, go home. There’s someone else to take your place,” Villeneuve opined, noting RB reserve driver Liam Lawson, who is waiting in the wings.

“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.”

During his time with Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo was one of the sport’s brightest prospects.

However, he opted to move to Renault for 2019 and then endured two disastrous seasons with McLaren in 2021 and 2022.

That saw his stock fall within the paddock sharply and left him sidelined for the start of last year.

He made a return following a promising tyre test with Red Bull Racing following last year’s British Grand Prix.

But despite flashes of pace and the ‘old’ Ricciardo, his form has never bounced back to where it was during his early years.

“You all talk about that first season or first two seasons,” Villeneuve noted of Ricciardo’s early career.

“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.”

Villeneuve, who didn’t win another grand prix after his 1997 title-winning campaign (and only scored four more podiums in a career that ran until 2006), saved his harshest criticism for last.

“I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results,” he opined.