Valtteri Bottas is “too slow” and was at fault for the co▨llision with George Russell at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, according to 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Bottas and Merced🐭es protege and Williams driver George Russell suffered a massive race-ending crash when they tangled while battling over ninth place in Sunday’s second round of the season at Imola.

While both drivers initially blamed each other in the immediate aftermath of the huge shunt, the stewards decided it was ultimately ಞa racing incident and took no further action.

SEE ALSO: Why Bottas ended miserable Imola F1 weekend defending from a Williams 

Post-race comments made by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff inferred that he felt Russell was more to blame for the collision, but Villeneuve disagrees and reckons Bottas is feeling the heat amid a 𒈔poor start to the season with his contract due to expire at the end of the year

, Villeneuve said: “I don’t quite understand Toto Wolff. Why does he blame the young Brit in the collision with Mercedes junior Russell?

“Bottas knew that his potential successor was about to overtake him and risked a serious ac𝄹cident with his slight move to the right. He mustn’t do that under these difficult track conditions.

“This shows how tensed Bottas is already in the second race ofꦉ the season. And that’s not going t🎀o get any better. Because he is simply too slow. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have had to defend his position so hard against a Williams.”

And Villeneuve also believes that new Red Bull signing Sergio Perez will provide better support to Max Vers💛tappen over the course of the season than Bottas can for Mercedes teammate 🤡Lewis Hamilton.

“Perez is the newcomer to the Red Bull team and yet is already stronger than Bottas, who is in his fifth season with Mercedes,” he added. “Perez can help Max more than Bottas can do for ⛄Hamilton.”