“Michael was the first to do certain misconduct”– Jacques Villeneuve accuses Michael Schumacher for establishing precedent for modern day F1 crashes

“Michael was the first to do certain misconduct”– Jacques Villeneuve blames Michael Schumacher for current F1 crashes.

This season of Formula 1 has seen innumerable crashes, and it is also present among the two 2021 world title protagonists– Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Jacques Villeneuve, who had his own decorated days in F1, claims that Michael Schumacher is responsible for setting a precedent for modern-day F1 crashes with his misconduct.

“Michael was the first to do certain misconduct, then many followed him. Now everyone is doing it and it is becoming very dangerous,” he said to Corriere.it.

Villeneuve then also talked about his racing days and how it was different from today, and now drivers are compelled to take more risks.

“There were no such penalties. But it was different, we passed inside. Now they block you on the straight, they move, you are forced to take extreme risks to pass and you can make mistakes. So it is difficult to establish the responsibilities, at Monza they were not clear.”

They should not stop

Despite claiming it to be dangerous, the former F1 driver doesn’t think that the drivers shouldn’t stop with their approach, as it’s a fight at the end of the day.

“No because?” he said when asked whether they should stop. “It’s a fight, they’re gladiators and they’re not too aggressive, they just want to stand in front of each other. They do not turn around and we do not even see certain bad things as in the past.”

Further, Villeneuve believes that Verstappen is extremely aggressive with Hamilton, leading to mistakes between the two; therefore, crashes occur.

“Verstappen is always very aggressive, with Hamilton he is even more aggressive. If you put them together in the same corner they exaggerate, but these moments are part of F1. If every time a penalty is triggered there will be no more competition because no one will try to overtake.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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