Villeneuve: I don't think Alonso has ever been hurt racing

In a wide-ranging interview made possible by the media team at Instant Casino, which we will publish in instalments over coming days. Villeneuve was not shy to speak his mind which we so appreciate on this website as we explore alternative voices to the PR narrative spewed by F1 teams and the largely pandering F1 media.

Villeneuve 'poked the Samurai' with his latest comments about F1's longest-serving, hugely popular double F1 World Champion whose form has dipped since Aston Martin lost the plot with their once highly effective AMRs.

"The problem now is not Fernando Alonso's quality, it's his age," ventured JV. "If teams had to decide between him and a young driver who is not as good as Alonso, they would pick the younger driver because of their age. It's madness, but that's how the sport works. It's a bad thing, but it's a normal thing in every sport and life," explained Villeneuve.

Alonso (42) is the only current F1 driver in his forties. In their thirties are Lewis Hamilton (39), Nico Hulkenberg (36) Daniel Ricciardo (35), Valtteri Bottas (34), Sergio Perez (34) and Kevin Magnussen (31).

The other 13 are all in their twenties, with Hungarian Grand Prix winner 23-year-old Oscar Piastri the youngest of all the current F1 drivers on the grid.

Of the 'Old Guard', only Alonso, Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Perez have deals beyond 2024. But the latter is not performing at Red Bull despite renewing his contract recently. Should he not improve, there are clauses performance-related clauses.

Meanwhile waiting in the wings, ready and primed for F1 are the likes of 22-year-old Liam Lawson who is ready to step up into F1 either with VCARB or Red Bull. Much like, 19-year-old Oliver Bearman is doing in the forthcoming 2025 F1 rookie season with Haas with Ferrari backing.

Villeneuve continued: "You have to give the young a chance, even if they're not as good as the seniors. It's also worth noting that team principals and owners don't want a driver with more aura overpowering them, they want to be the father of the team and situation, and to do that you need younger drivers than Alonso."

"There is no optimum age in F1," Reckoned Villeneuve. "In the past, we were not as healthy as the drivers now and technologically or physically advanced. Also, racing is super safe now, if you're still a racer at the age of 42, you're either a great racer or you didn't take enough risks in your career.

"I don't think Alonso has ever been hurt [racing], I've never been hurt and my car was nowhere near as safe as they are today. The modern F1 cars are the easiest they've ever been to drive," added Villeneuve, who like Alonso had some huge crashes in the top flight and are both lucky to be alive. That's why they are great!

Alonso's biggest crashes happened at the 2003 Brazilian GP, the 2012 Belgian GP, the 2016 Australian GP among the memorable of a dozen or so 'big ones' that the Spaniard walked away from.

Villeneuve had his fair share of incidents on his way to being 1995 ChampCar and Indy 500 Champion. His F1 career was peppered with some 'big ones including at the 1998 Belgian GP [Eau Rouge flat out!] also at the 2001 Australian GP among several big ones the JV survived.

His father Gilles Villeneuve was not so lucky. Killed at the age of 32, killed during Qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix [Zolder] when Jacques was 11-years-old.