Jacques Villeneuve not fond of F1 accepting teens

F1 Update – Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve has warned that the trend for drivers to be pushed into F1 as teenagers is giving off the “wrong image” about the sport.

While Max Verstappen made his F1 debut at age 17 last year, Canadian Lance Stroll will be racing with Williams in 2017 at the age of 18.

Both drivers jumped to F1 straight from Formula 3.

Villeneuve reckons it is wrong for Formula 1 to have teenagers making their debut in grand prix racing, as he suggests it makes it look too easy.

“Basically their luggage is not full yet. Normally you would get to F1 with luggage that was half full, and you just have to do the other half,” Villeneuve told Motorsport.com.

“Now they come in and the luggage still has the new tag from the shop, and it hasn’t been opened yet! That’s wrong. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, this is F1, it’s the pinnacle.

“So there is something missing. You can have a lot of talent, you can be super fast, but it’s also the wrong image to give. It has to be hard to achieve to get there, but it’s not.”

Category: Formula One