Jacques Villeneuve believes the introduction of the Drag Reduction System into Formula 1 has been detrimental to the racing, with overtaking now too easy as a result.
Villeneuve believes that listening to the fans brought the introduction of DRS in order to improve the spectacle of the sport, but Villeneuve believes they should have continued to make it difficult to pass in Formula 1 rather than bring in the button to help.
“The fans kept complaining and saying ‘there’s not enough overtaking, there’s not enough of this, not enough of that’,” said Villeneuve at the Autosport International in Birmingham. “By listening to that, what did F1 do? ‘OK, let’s have DRS, we’ll have a hundred overtakings in a race’.
“But name me one overtake that you remember since DRS? You don’t. With DRS, it’s a case of, ‘OK let’s not take a risk, let’s just push a button’.
“Now you see cars overtake on a highway, you don’t see proper racing because of that. We get a tonnes of overtaking but its boring. It defeats the purpose. In motorbike race, sometimes it takes a rider 10 laps to overtake, but in these laps, you see the work that goes into it.”
