Jacques Villeneuve says a budget cap is the wrong direction for F1.
With support from the FIA and many teams, the sport’s new owner Liberty Media is determined to impose caps on annual spending from 2021.
Villeneuve, F1’s outspoken 1997 world champion, is diametrically opposed.
"F1 is supposed to represent absolute excess," he told Le Journal de Montreal as he began to tackle his new racing role in the European Nascar series.
"But now it is an economy race. We limit the use of engines to three per season, and after that you are penalised. That’s not F1," Villeneuve insisted.
"If we do a budget cap at, say, 100 million, what’s going to happen? Mercedes would certainly spend the 100 million, but mid-pack teams like Haas or Alfa Romeo and the others will spend a fifth of that to stay fifth or sixth," he said.
"I’ll tell you what’s going to happen: the smaller organisations will just put more money into their pockets.
"It will not help F1. It’s ridiculous, if you want my opinion," Villeneuve declared.