Villeneuve on the state-of-play ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix

Villeneuve praising Red Bull’s protest over George Russell’s Montreal win, questioning Ferrari’s engineering decisions, and warning Max Verstappen may be on thin ice this weekend with the FIA stewards, as he can ill afford more penalty points on his superlicence.

Speaking to the BetVictor media team, Villeneuve backed Red Bull’s protest against George Russell's Canadian Grand Prix victory, suggesting the Mercedes driver may have deliberately provoked Max Verstappen.

“Red Bull were right to protest, in a way,” declared Villeneuve. “Mercedes and Russell knew that one penalty to Verstappen means he misses a race. And Russell did hit the brakes during the straight line to kind of force Verstappen into a mistake. That's not cool.”

He added that Russell’s post-race comments about Verstappen’s penalty points were “hilarious,” but not out of line: “It is good to hear stuff like that. We want to see characters out there, not robots. Humans who can make fun of each other and play the game… as long as they’re funny and clever, it’s cool.”

Villeneuve warned that the Red Bull Ring’s layout puts Verstappen at high risk of incurring more penalty points: “The next race is at a track where there's a lot of potential overtaking, so it's an easy race to get penalties..

"He has one more race to go and then he’ll have two points removed at the end of June. He doesn’t have a lot of points to play with, but it didn’t seem to affect his driving in Montreal at all," added the 1997 F1 World Champion, who believes Russell is very much in the 2025 F1 title fight, especially if McLaren’s intra-team tensions continue.

“Look at Russell’s form in Montreal and he's close enough,” Villeneuve said. “He’s closer to the lead than Norris was to Verstappen last year and Norris ended up fighting for the championship. So anything can happen. You just need a couple more crashes between the McLaren guys.”

He suggested the Spielberg layout may encourage a repeat: “Austria is kind of a similar track in a way. Slow-speed corners, long straights. It could be a repeat.”

Despite Russell’s recent win, Villeneuve believes the Briton’s future at Mercedes is anything but secure—especially if Verstappen were to become available: “I wouldn’t be comfortable if I were Russell because Antonelli is not going anywhere. If Verstappen was going to go to Mercedes, it would be in Russell's seat, not in Antonelli’s.

“One race does not make a difference. Mercedes know the driver, they know how quick Russell is, how he works with developing the car or not. Just having one win does not really affect the thought process about who you want in your car,” Villeneuve said.

Villeneuve was scathing in his assessment of Ferrari’s form and communication, particularly following the weekend in Montreal: “Ferrari have been saying every race that they have upgrades coming even when they don't."

The Canadian continued: “Sometimes they hit the ground and they’re great, sometimes they're not. It's a lot of hit and miss… Montreal being only slow-speed corners with high-speed straight lines is probably very different to some of the other tracks.”

Villeneuve was especially critical of the Leclerc strategy blunder in Montreal, where the Monegasque insisted on staying out but was overridden: “Leclerc gave a clear indication on his tyres and you see, after the race, that he was right. It was obvious. He told the team to listen, and the engineer’s answer was ‘Okay.’ That sounded like, ‘Okay you're right, let’s do this.’

"But then they didn’t. They just did whatever they wanted anyway. Did they actually care what the driver felt? Obviously not. The driver was right. If they don’t trust or believe the driver, then change the driver. Otherwise, start trusting and believing your driver," concluded Villeneuve.

As Formula 1 heads to the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring (June 27-29), McLaren’s Oscar Piastri leads the Drivers’ Championship by 22 points over teammate Lando Norris, with Verstappen and Russell in close pursuit.

The Red Bull Ring’s 4.318km layout, with its fast straights and elevation changes, demands strong braking and tyre management. Weather forecasts predict warm conditions (28°C) with a slight chance of rain on race day. This standard race weekend, without a sprint, sets the stage for intense battles.