“It’s a nice story, the Ricciardo 2.0 who has learnt from his mistakes – blah, blah, blah – but he just doesn’t get it anymore. He didn’t succeed at McLaren, he didn’t succeed at AlphaTauri and he’s never going to succeed again. Be honest with yourself.

“He is an ideal motorsport co-commentator or analyst. He is funny, has flair and can handle anything well. Go and enjoy that, but stop doing Formula 1. And at a training team, he has no business at all anyway.

“Formula 1 is the class for the world’s top 20 drivers and he hasn’t been part of that for a long time."

Coronel’s comments come after Ricciardo was drawn into a bitter war of words with former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Villenueve launched a scathing attack on the Aussie driver, who has eight race wins to his name, asked: "Why's he still in F1?" before Ricciardo picked up his first points of the season by finishing eighth.

In a rare appearance as a Sky F1 pundit in Montreal, Villeneuve claimed that Ricciardo’s “image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results” and claimed the Perth-born driver has been struggling “for the last five years.”

Ricciardo responded by telling Villeneuve to “eat s***”, before suggesting the Canadian had “hit his head a few times” playing ice hockey. Villeneuve responded to Ricciardo’s “personal” reaction and doubled down on his remarks, questioning his professionalism.

With 10 races to go, it will be down to the RB driver to prove his critics wrong and try to bridge the gap to Tsunoda, who with 22 points is 10 clear of the experienced racer.