Williams ‘sold their soul’ to Stroll family

Jacques Villeneuve has once again stuck the boot into fellow compatriot Lance Stroll and is still not convinced that he has the talent for Formula 1.

The 1997 World Champion has been heavily critical of Stroll since he was announced as part of Williams' driver line-up for the 2017 season and thinks it has damaged the team's reputation.

"Even Massa was faster than Lance," Villenueve said.

"His podium in Baku does not convince me as it was pure luck."

Williams are still yet to announce Stroll's team-mate for the 2018 campaign, but it is believed that money will once again be the deciding factor and Sergey Sirotkin will get the nod ahead of Robert Kubica.

Villeneuve said he was not surprised if that was to be the case, given that, in his view, Williams essentially sold themselves out to the Stroll family.

He added: "They already sold their soul to the billions of Lawrence Stroll, who only cares about his son."

Not finished there, Villeneuve then went on to say that Valtteri Bottas' performances in 2017 were "embarrassing" when taking into consideration the amount of engine power he had at his disposal and believes a now axed driver would have served as a better team-mate to Lewis Hamilton.

"Mercedes won because they still have the best engine, but only Hamilton was able to take advantage of it. Bottas' performance was almost embarrassing," Villeneuve told Auto Bild.

"He is a solid number 2 and no more. I would have chosen Wehrlein."