Villeneuve warns Cadillac in Red Bull 'curse' Perez roast

16:26, 16 Sep

Updated: 18:56, 16 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Jacques Villeneuve has posed his theory behind the second Red Bull seat 'curse, dubbing Sergio Perez "never a World Champion," in the process.

Jacques Villeneuve, 1997 World Champion doesn't believe there are enough 'good' drivers today. Photo: RacePictures.

“But some drivers, and there’s a lot of them, they just come in and they don’t know how to work on a setup."

- Jacques Villeneuve

“I think when they put in [Pierre] Gasly and [Alex] Albon, they weren’t ready,” Villeneuve said on Sky Sports F1.

“They still needed their half a season as rookies to get up to speed, and they weren’t given it. Those two drivers are better now than when they were at Red Bull.

The Canadian world champion believes there are not enough drivers that match Max Verstappen's caliber, which he believes represents a headache for Red Bull.

“Max is an old fashioned driver, and there’s not many like him anymore," Villeneuve continued. "There used to be more, [but] there’s not many like Max anymore, so to find another driver that will work with the team, work on the car to make it his and to help the team progress, it’s not easy.”

However, Villeneuve stressed that it is possible to find drivers who can live up to the task of contributing technically to a team's understanding of the car, and those who are currently not doing it, “Well, that’s because they’re not good enough. It’s that simple."

“A driver that will be good enough will manage to be that close that [the team] feel ‘okay, maybe his comments are worthwhile’.

“But some drivers, and there’s a lot of them, they just come in and they don’t know how to work on a setup. They just say, ‘oh yeah, I’ve got a little bit of understeer.’ Okay, well, why? What’s happening? What do you feel on the ground? They don’t have an idea.

“They just say, ‘okay, if Max does this, I’ll do the same.’ That doesn’t help. During the season, they get further and further away.”

Villeneuve roasts Perez

In his assessment, the mexican driver ousted by Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2024 season, didn't have the margin for improvement necessary to deliver consistently in a top team like Red Bull.

“[Sergio] Perez at his peak or already at plateau, wasn’t going to get any better, but he was never a World Champion to start with.

Red Bull Racing to find that key driver for their second seat?

Red Bull Racing are currently struggling as their second cockpit is lagging well behind Verstappen's with Yuki Tsunoda unable to come to terms with his RB21, whereas Verstappen has already driven it to three wins this season.

As 2026 approaches the chance is there for the driver who takes up the second Red Bull seat to end the so-called curse and start putting the second Red Bull drive consistently in the points.

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