Jacques Villeneuve has called for Lance Stroll to be given a race-ban for his crash with Fernando Alonso at United States Grand Prix, the high-speed collision sent the Spaniard airborne but he was still able to finish the race.
The pair collided after a safety car restart on lap 21, Stroll has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the 2022 Mexico Grand Prix for causing the collision.
“Lance Stroll should be suspended for a race for the incident with Fernando Alonso,” Villeneuve wrote in his column for Formule1.nl.
“By swerving on the straight, you put other drivers in danger, possibly even in mortal danger. Because you can cause a huge accident that way.
“And that is because you consciously decide to do something like that, not because you are making a mistake, so it is really unacceptable.
“The FIA has been very lax both in Formula 1 and lower classes regarding drivers swerving on the straight, when that is the most dangerous thing there is and the last thing you want to see. It’s pathetic to do and super dangerous.”
Despite being sent into the air for several seconds following the crash and needing to pit for a new front wing and tyres, Alonso was able to mount a remarkable fightback and finished the race in seventh.
However, his wing-mirror was also damaged in the crash, and flapped loosely for the rest of the race.
After Haas protested, Alonso was slapped with a 30-second penalty after Alpine sent his car back on track in an unsafe condition, dropping him to 15th in the final race results.
Keep it down please
Villeneuve also took aim at Lewis Hamilton, accusing the Brit of complaining too much on team radio.
He added Mercedes made the wrong call to put Hamilton onto hard tyres, he emerged into the lead after a Red Bull error gave Max Verstappen an 11-second pitstop but Verstappen chased him down on faster rubber.
Hamilton was regularly updating the team about his tyres as usual, but Villeneuve said he crossed the line when accusing Verstappen of track limits infringements.
After Verstappen overtook Hamilton, there was still a chance the Brit could take his first win of the season if Verstappen was slapped with a time penalty but the Dutchman kept it clean for the remaining laps.
“How many times on Sunday did we hear someone complaining that someone was exceeding the track limits and should get a penalty?” Villeneuve added.
“That complaining is starting to get annoying. It’s a bit over the top.
“Although it was funny on Sunday, because Lewis kept complaining about Max and Max did indeed get to see a caution flag. But less than a few laps later, Lewis got the same warning.
“He was so focused on whether Max was going over the track limits that he didn’t realise he was making mistakes himself.”
