Jacques Villeneuve believes McLaren showed “weakness” in their strategy late in the Emilia Romagna GP on Sunday.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and third respectively for the papaya, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claiming his second win of the season.
Yet after a late safety car and with Norris, in third, on fresher tyres than Piastri ahead, McLaren opted not to immediately allow Norris by to chase Verstappen out in front. Instead, Norris made a somewhat inevitable overtake a few laps later, by which time Verstappen had a four-second lead.
Villeneuve, on punditry duties for Sky Sports F1, was critical of McLaren’s “really odd” approach to the finale in Imola.
"They [McLaren] show weakness, they don't show the strength that Red Bull are always showing year after year,” said 1997 F1 world champion Villeneuve.
"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?"
Verstappen now only trails championship leader Piastri by 22 points, despite McLaren possessing the fastest car.
“Verstappen is in for the championship, you don’t want to give Verstappen wins,” Villeneuve added. “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.”
F1 next heads to the traditional crown jewel event, the Monaco Grand Prix, this weekend.
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