Prost bemoans 'trained monkeys' of F1.

Alain Prost, famed as 'the professor' during his time as a Formula One driver, though his wise ways seemed to desert him during his time as a team owner, has been speaking out about the standard of driver in Formula One these days.

Prost, quoted in Britain's The Sun newspaper says, "The drivers nowadays are trained monkeys. They simply follow the instructions of the engineers and let the computers do all the work."

Prost, who won his fourth and final world championship in 1993, has been largely absent from the F1 paddock after his team folded before the first race of the season in 2002.

"To me it's not a real racing competition any more," he says of today's Formula One races. "And what's worse, these drivers are so much a part of the whole system that they have to keep quiet so as not to harm the image of the team or the sponsors."

Prost, the most successful driver in Formula One until Michael Schumacher blitzed his records in the recent spell of Ferrari dominance, reckons that characters have been lost from the F1 arena since the Frenchman finished driving.

"I don't want to sound old-fashioned, but in the past ten years drivers have become increasingly like robots," he says.