Jacques Villeneuve has hit out at the current state of Formula 1, ranging from the unpredictable nature of the recent results, the Pirelli tyres and the ‘childish’ drivers.
The 1997 world champion made his comments ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named after his late father.
The 41-year-old isn’t a fan of the current spectacle which has seen a record six different winners in the opening six races, describing it as ‘too unpredictable’.
“I am not a huge, huge fan right now,” he said. “It is too unpredictable on the tyre front. There is very little the drivers can do, the tyres just suddenly disappear and that doesn’t seem to be to the level that F1 should be at. It should be more gradual.
“It is always fun to see an underdog beat the establishment but it is something that happens once in a while. Now it seems to be almost a constant.
“Teams and drivers that may be mediocre or average will end up running at the front because suddenly it turns around and there is nothing that the good teams or drivers can do. It is not logical, the best should win.”
Villeneuve turned his attention to the current crop of young drivers who he described as ‘daddy’s boys’ who have paid their way into the sport, resulting in a lack of respect for other drivers.
“They all think it’s a video game and it’s not. It is very, very dangerous and it’s tough,” he continued.
“When you see Bruno Senna in Barcelona, he is not in the same race, he is going appallingly slow and he is blocking guys who are fighting for the points. That is just not intelligent driving for starters.
“I think in the years when F1 was dangerous, 20 or 30 years ago, the risk of dying was very high so the drivers just didn’t do that to each other. There was that extra respect, there was common sense and also there was a bunch of drivers who worked hard to get into racing.
“They weren’t racers at 12 years old being told all their life that the financing was there in place for them to race, they had to sweat for it, they weren’t little daddy’s boys like you have now basically.
“So they are driving F1 and they are still children, they are still babies and they are kept like that.”
