Jacques Villeneuve says fellow Canadian and Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll is learning the hard way that running an F1 outfit isn't like managing "a clothing brand".
After a weekend Down Under littered with crashes and incidents caused by both its drivers, the alarm bells are ringing at Aston Martin which is now the only team on the grid that hasn't scored a championship point.
Even worse, the Silverstone-based squad's short-term prospects appear gloomy, with its resources set to be spent on repairing damages rather than on preparing upgrades for next week's round of racing at Imola.
Villeneuve believes Stroll - a billionaire who made his fortune in the fashion industry - is stumbling in his efforts to pull his team towards the front of the grid as he ambitions to do.
"Running a team takes more than just money as Lawrence Stroll is now finding out with Aston Martin," Villeneuve told Formule1.nl.
"It is not a clothing chain or a watch brand, because it is much more complicated, especially if you’re running a team for your son. Finding solutions becomes all the more complicated."
Assessing Aston's weekend in Melbourne, Villeneuve says there was a lot of blame to spread around between Vettel and Stroll.
"Looking at this weekend you saw that Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll kept getting into trouble," said the 1997 F1 world champion.
"Stroll’s incident with Latifi in qualifying was just embarrassing. He also once blamed the track for the crash, which was perhaps the strangest explanation for a crash ever.
"And in the race we saw that Stroll really does use his mirrors given his weaving tactics."
As for Vettel, Villeneuve suggests the four-time world champion would be happier in life watching F1 from the confines of his comfortable home.
"Vettel is clearly not having a good time, I think he would rather be at home," he said. "He has also made mistakes at Ferrari, but his shoes this weekend did not suit his stature."
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