Villeneuve Slams Schumacher's Ethics

Jacques Villeneuve slammed Michael Schumacher's race ethics today and said the German double world champion seemed to be the only driver behaving poorly on the track.

Villeneuve was referring to the start of the French Grand Prix two weeks ago when Schumacher cut across the piste in front of David Coulthard, forcing the Briton to brake heavily to avoid a collision.

"These things do bother me. There's not many people doing such things. It seems there's just one guy doing it and he always gets away with it so why should he stop?

"Some of us drivers wouldn't do a thing like that even though we know we can get away with it, it's our personal ethic. But I guess is not something learnt in the car but in everyday life."

"David is fighting for the championship so he can't really bang wheels and throw points away, I guess it wouldn't matter as much to me," said Villeneuve a former world champion.

This season, Villeneuve is struggling in the BAR team and is seventh in the standings.

Schumacher, who was fighting for the world championship title in 1997 with Villeneuve, was stripped of all his points for crashing into the Canadian during the final race.

In 1994, Schumacher collected the title after a crash which knocked his championship rival Damon Hill and himself out of the last race in Australia.

Villeneuve said the issue had been raised in various drivers' briefings but that nothing had ever been done about it.

"The drivers don't have any power so it doesn't really matter what we say or think," he said. "Drivers don't always agree among each other so that's probably why they don't have any power."

"We just get our superlicence and we race."

Villeneuve said it was not fair on the drivers when they had to hit the brakes to avoid an accident and that it was "very difficult for anyone outside a racing car to really know what's going on".

Former Formula One driver turned BMW race director, Gerhard Berger, said: "These things have always happened, they are a part of racing."