F1: Villeneuve calls for safety car changes

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Ex-Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve has called for F1 to change its safety car protocol following the accident that left Jules Bianchi with severe head injuries in Japan.

Sunday's race at Suzuka was stopped early when Bianchi collided with a vehicle that was recovering the crashed car of Adrian Sutil. While the safety car was sent out on track following Bianchi's crash, Villeneuve believes that it should have been deployed as soon as Sutil's car needed recovering.

"The rules have to be changed concerning the safety car," said the 1997 world champion. "When I was racing, and afterwards, I was always saying that any time there is an accident there should be a safety car.

"There should not be room for judgment. If someone has to go out to pick up a car stranded on the track, it's simple. Accident – safety car, and that's it. It should have been like that for years. America has had that forever."

Villeneuve believes that critics who feel races are neutralised too often are wrong, and that the risk of another car colliding with a stationary vehicle is too high to cover such situations off with yellow flags.

"The problem now is everytime the FIA send the safety car out all the media and fans complain, saying they destroyed the race," he added. "So now they second-guess themselves. It's a lose-lose situation.

"Yes, sometimes it does slow the race down a bit, but at least you avoid cases like today, and you avoid the human aspect of having to make a decision.

"Whenever I was racing, if I had a crash I was always worried about another car crashing into me. I never really like just having yellow flags. You do slow down, but how much? And you could have a puncture, or a suspension failure.

"I'm amazed something like this has never happened before. I think we've just been lucky before. Quite often people spin when other cars have spun and they just miss them by inches."