Villeneuve: Red Bull has never really tested Verstappen with a strong teammate

12:17, 05 Aug

byLudo van Denderen

Jacques Villeneuve has been extremely critical in previous seasons of Sergio Perez, who was Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull Racing at the time. However, the former world champion does not consider the Mexican to be the worst teammate Verstappen has ever had.

After the Hungarian Grand Prix - in which Tsunoda again did not finish inside the points - Villeneuve said on a betting site: “Tsunoda is probably the worst of them all so far. A lot of people say it’s unfair, that the car is made for Max.”

“But Max might be the only one who actually gives good feedback to the team. So yes, they develop the car, so it gets better and better for him.”

'Few are like Max' sees Villeneuve

“They’re not there trying to make it difficult for the number two driver. The thing is, there’s not many like Max. If you look in the past, there were more than one at his level in the paddock. And then you had a few good drivers. And then a few average as well.”

"Now there are a lot of good drivers instead of only a few. You don’t really have exceptional drivers anymore. So, Max really stands out. So, it’s hard to put someone next to him. Because if all the drivers that fight each other are barely good, they’ll all look great amongst each other."

"That’s until you get someone like Max and you think, ‘Okay, maybe they’re all not good enough!’ So, is it the fact that all the drivers that have been paired with Max so far have all been average drivers?”

Villeneuve is curious about how good Verstappen really is

Villeneuve advocates for men like Charles Leclerc or Fernando Alonso to be alongside Verstappen, to see how good Dutchman really is. The Canadian names another one: "It’d be good to put Norris next to Max, so we would really see if Norris is exceptional or is he just very good?"

"That would help to quantify things. We know that Max is exceptional but then the drivers next to him have just not been good enough and there’s no point saying, ‘Oh poor them.’ No, they’re just not good enough. That’s it. They’re barely good.”

'Tsunoda must leave Red Bull'

According to Villeneuve, Tsunoda has had his chance and the experiment at Red Bull failed. “He was put in and he didn’t cut it. It’s that simple and you can’t feel bad for him.”

“He has been given the chance to be in the top team, and he didn’t cut it. He was promoted to the big league and you can see the frustration. And it’s making him drive even worse because he knows he’s not quick enough right now,” he concluded.