Prost: F1 now 'more speed, less brains'.

Alain Prost has spoken out against the new breed of Formula One which, despite ridding itself of electronic driver aids this season, he reckons is nowhere near as difficult as in his day.

The Frenchman, who won four world titles between 1985-93 before embarking on an ill-fated trip into team ownership, currently competes - successfully of course - in the Andros Trophy ice racing series, but keeps an eye on proceedings in F1 - and doesn't like all that he sees.

"There are a lot of things I do not like in modern F1," he told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper in an interview shared with the BBC's Inside Sport programme to air tonight (Monday), "We're talking too much about money, politics and technology. It could be so much better."

Prost admitted that he was particularly disillusioned by the ease with which drivers appeared to be able to drive modern F1 cars, and even mediocre pilots make a career in the top flight.

"Drivers were more important in my time, because you had less technology to help you drive the car," he explained, "Now drivers drive as fast as possible from the first lap to the end. It's more speed, less brains, less tactics, less strategy and much less work together between a driver and the engineers -- and that is not the F1 I like.

"The car and the team were always more important than the driver, but at least one thing was sure when I was racing -- you knew who the best drivers were. Now that is not so clear. You might pull anyone from the top two-thirds of the grid and they could win if they were in the right car. That wasn't how it was."

Even Lewis Hamilton, who Prost later tips for this year's world title, cannot have his talent accurately judged, according to the Frenchman.

"This is why a new driver with very little experience can come in to F1 and drive very quickly," he said, "It's just like a PlayStation. Look at Lewis Hamilton. Is he super guy? Is he average? It's difficult to judge because it's easy to drive these cars."

Prost also said that he was fed up with the apparent bickering in the top flight, singling out the recent espionage row as a case in point. While a former pilot of both Ferrari and McLaren, he admits that he cannot understand the fine levied against the latter, and insisted that it did not cast F1 in a good light amongst regular fans.

"When you are on the outside as a fan and you hear there is a hundred million dollar penalty on a Formula One team, it just isn't decent," he claimed, "'I was in grand prix [racing] for 20 years and I saw engineers, or even journalists sometimes, trying to get information about the car. But a bit here and there doesn't help. The car is a complete package. You take one part from a Ferrari into a McLaren and it is a disaster, so I cannot support the fine for McLaren."