New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI) Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve thinks the role of a reserve driver in Formula 1 has lost relevance as apart from bringing "sponsors to the team, they don't do much".

Speaking ahead of the season opener in Melbourne, the 1997 world champion made his comments on reserve drivers in response to a question on India's Kush Maini, who became Alpine's fourth reserve driver earlier this week.

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Maini will perform his testing duties alongside his third season in Formula 2.

"He (Kush) was having a good Formula 2 season. I don't know. It's really hard to understand all these extra drivers that teams have because they do nothing. They are there. They smile. They do interviews. But they don't drive," said Villeneuve in a select media interaction arranged by FanCode on Thursday.

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"So, I don't understand the concept with modern Formula 1. When there was testing (in his days), those drivers were driving a lot and were doing part of the workload of the drivers in developing the car and so on. So, they had a purpose.

"Right now, other than bringing sponsors to the team, they don't do much. So, I'm really confused. Because Alpine, they have, what, 3 (actually 4) of them? And only 2 can do a Friday morning testing. So, why do you have them? What's the point? What's the usefulness? It's very difficult to comprehend," added the Canadian.

Villeneuve is the last driver with whom Williams won the drivers' championship back in 1997.

As part of the deal with Alpine, Maini will be part of at least two private tests in their old car.

Maini is aiming to become the third Indian in Formula 1 after Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)