Jacques Villeneuve accuses McLaren of being weak

Jacques Villeneuve has accused McLaren of being weak when it comes to fighting with Red Bull.

The 1997 Formula 1 world champion has taken aim at the Woking-based team after Max Verstappen swooped past polesitter Oscar Piastri on his way to victory last weekend in the Emilia-Romagna GP.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner spoke about his surprise at how much of a pace advantage Verstappen had over Piastri and Lando Norris.

McLaren labored over swapping Norris and Piastri around in the race, with the Aussie on an older set of tyres, and Villeneuve believes lacking that ruthlessness is now costing McLaren points.

He told Sky Sports F1: “McLaren show weakness. Basically, they don’t show the strength that Red Bull are always showing year after year.

“It’s as if they’re afraid to be aggressive in trying to win the drivers’ championship, and they’re afraid to go against Piastri. It’s really, really odd.

“Piastri messed up that first corner. He got caught out sleeping. He should never have come out of the corner second and then he didn’t have the pace, which was odd. Norris had more pace.

“On the restart, McLaren knew that it was a matter of laps before Norris would have taken Piastri with the tyre difference, it was obvious.

“100 per cent sure he would get ahead, so why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen?”

The Dutchman’s win sliced Piastri’s lead in the championship to 22 points while Norris’s second place is 13 points adrift of his team-mate.

Villeneuve says McLaren’s failure to prioritise any driver is now playing into Verstappen’s hands in the title race.

He added: “Because Verstappen is in for the championship. You don’t want to give Verstappen wins. That’s more points for him in the drivers’ championship.

“They seem to be happy with second and third. McLaren has a car where a good weekend means first and second. Anything less is a bit disappointing.

“First and third is fairly acceptable, but they seem happy with second and third. That weakness thing. You can see it also in the strategy. When Norris went long, why do you pit him?

“You made the decision to go long. You stay on the track. Your pace is still good. So why pit a little bit early? It’s as if you’re afraid to go for it.

“They didn’t take advantage of the virtual safety car. At the end of the day, with the other safety car, it didn’t make a difference. But still, it shows that lack of ‘let’s go for it’.”