Lotus driver Jarno Trulli has lamented the lack of mechanical failures in modern F1, saying the sport lacks unpredictability.
Trulli's concerns about the future of Formula One comes on the back of the "most boring race of the year" - according to the Italian - in Valencia where for only the fourth time in history all starters finished race.
"We've broken a new, previously unthinkable record in Valencia: all the 24 cars that started the race got to the finish: no failures, no retirements, no crashes," he wrote his Repubblica column.
"(Narain) Karthikeyan is the first driver in F1 history to finish 24th. Whether this is a positive or negative record, it depends on the driver and his ambitions. Perhaps I wouldn't like it."
The F1 veteran added that the cars are too "perfect" these days and that takes away some of the excitement.
"In any case, this record is a bit paradoxical and has a precise significance: the Valencia race in my opinion has indicated another winner, besides [Sebastian] Vettel as usual. That winner is technology," he said.
"After having won hands down, in the last few years, the battle against the human element, ever less important in F1, it has ended up winning the philosophical battle against the unexpected and more generally against the unpredictable. Something that in our world is called 'mechanical failure'.
"Between 10 and 15 years ago, when I started racing (in F1), a driver knew how he'd start a race, but wouldn't know how he would finish it. In fact, he didn't even know whether he would finish it. Nowadays, instead, reliability has become ordinary: cars have four wheels and are reliable. I can't remember the last time an engine broke down in an F1 race. Constructors have become excellent at quality control and no detail is left to chance."
The Italian warns that if the current trend is harming the sport.
"This implies two things: the first is that the chances for a small team to get in the points have sensibly reduced; the second is a further loss of appeal for F1," he said. "It's no coincidence that the Valencia race has been the most boring of the year."
