Formula 1: Jacques Villeneuve has no idea what he’s talking about

Jacques Villeneuve’s recent ridiculous claim about Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc illustrates that he has no idea what he’s talking about.

The most recent claim made by 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve about Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is even more ignorant than the claim he made about the 21-year-old Monegasque last summer when the young driver was in his rookie season in Formula 1 driving for Alfa Romeo Sauber.

Villeneuve made his earlier claim before it was confirmed in September that Leclerc would replace 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen as the teammate to four-time champion Sebastian Vettel ahead of the 2019 season.

Here is what Villeneuve had to say about the matter back in mid-August, according to Formula 1.

"“Look at the work [Kimi’s] been doing. He’s third in the championship, he’s often quicker than Vettel and when he’s not he’s just a tenth behind. He’s paramount in the development of the car. The whole team works fantastically well now.“Put a young ‘cub’ next to Vettel and what will Vettel do? He’ll try to eat him alive. Either he will destroy the young cub or it will end in tears and the whole team will end up going slower within two years. That’s not constructive.“Charles is still making a few mistakes. It would be amazing for him [to go to Ferrari], but it would be two years of Ferrari preparing him. Ferrari, like Mercedes, is not a team to prepare drivers. It’s a top team. Top teams they pay for the drivers when they are at their best and when they want them. That’s why you have junior teams, to prepare them.”"

To anyone who had actually watched Leclerc perform over the past few seasons, not just in his rookie Formula 1 season but in his pre-Formula 1 years, and to anyone who had actually watched Vettel perform over the past few seasons, it was obvious that this would not be the case, and it hasn’t been — not in the very least.

But that hasn’t stopped Villeneuve from claiming now that Leclerc is having a “negative effect” on Ferrari. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.

"“If you listen to any fan or go on the forums, even the qualifying accident [in Baku], Leclerc doesn’t get criticised. If it had been Vettel, he would have been destroyed by the media and everyone, for the same mistake.“Ultimately I think that’s having a negative effect for the team. Seb’s spin in Bahrain came because of that, then the team orders in China, it all comes from there. And Leclerc’s accident in qualifying also, wanting to prove that he’s the number one of the team. Ultimately that’s damaging the whole team.“I hope it re-balances out, because they should have been the one that’s being chased by Mercedes, and instead they’ve got three podiums, and that’s it. It’s not had a good positive effect on the team, that’s all.”"

With all due respect to Villeneuve, I understand that he is a Formula 1 champion and I have never driven a race car. But in this particular situation, he, just like anybody else, is an opinionated onlooker, and with fantasy world aside, does he even have any idea what he’s saying?

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Who dominated the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, in just his second start as a Ferrari driver before an engine issue with 10 laps remaining turned his lead of over 10 seconds into an unfortunate third place finish?

Some guy not named Vettel, that’s who.

Meanwhile, who spun out (marking his seventh spin/crash in the last 20 races at the time) 10 laps earlier and blew Ferrari’s opportunity for a 1-2 finish, or at the very least, a double podium finish in that same race?

I’ll tell you who — the same driver who threw away the 2017 and 2018 championships to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton via a plethora of completely unforced errors in each season.

On a side note, how the heck does Vettel’s spin in the Bahrain Grand Prix have any bearing on Leclerc’s effect on the team, and how the heck does it have any bearing on the team still making the ridiculous decision to prioritize him in the following race, the Chinese Grand Prix?

Vettel needed three team orders in his favor, one in each of the season’s first three races, as well as Leclerc to have an engine failure in a race that he would have won by a comfortable margin and to be put on an insanely terrible pit strategy in the Chinese Grand Prix just to get ahead of him by one point (37 to 36) in the driver standings heading into the season’s fourth race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

He then needed Leclerc’s crash in the qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Leclerc to be put on yet another terrible pit strategy in that race to open up a five-point gap (52 to 47) over him in the driver standings.

If Leclerc were having a negative effect on Ferrari, we’d know it. We’d know it because Vettel would be a six-time champion while five-time champion Hamilton would be a three-time champion, and Leclerc’s one miscue would be in the form of numerous miscues, similar to the ones that have eaten away at Vettel’s chances to add to his championship total.

As far as Vettel and Leclerc being held to different standards by fans is concerned, Vettel is a four-time champion. Leclerc has driven in four races for Ferrari. Vettel should not be making the amount of errors that he has been making in recent seasons while Leclerc should not be expected to be perfect and a championship contender right off the bat.

With all things considered, even with his imperfection and the fact that team orders have been used against him on a regular basis, Leclerc is still doing a heck of a job and giving Vettel a run for his money.

But I guess some might call that display of talent a “negative effect” on the team.

What are your thoughts regarding Jacques Villeneuve’s claim about the 2019 Formula 1 season that Charles Leclerc has had so far through his first four races driving for Ferrari?