Pirelli have been forced to defend themselves a number of times this year,
pointing out that they have done what was asked of them, but Villeneuve
believes the sport has moved in the wrong direction.
Even though those perceived to be the top drivers – Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso,
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton – are at or near the top
of the championship, he thinks the racing is too unpredictable.
“It just depends what you actually want to watch when you watch F1 at home,”
he said. “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.”
As for the younger drivers coming through, Villeneuve was scornful, pointing
to a number of “crazy” incidents this season.
“They all think it’s a video game and it’s not,” said Villeneuve, who will
be contributing to Sky Sports’ coverage this weekend. “It is very,
very dangerous and it’s tough.
“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. But secondly,
when you do a little twitch down the straight, that is just wrong.
“There is something in the general mentality that has just appeared. 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 and the financing
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.”