Fernando Alonso has questioned whether "mutual respect" exists between him and his fellow Formula 1 drivers.
The Spanish driver compared the modern era with that of Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve's, who was killed 30 years ago.
Alonso said: "It's a problem that goes back a long way to the junior categories and I think the time has come to try to get it back.
"I believe there is not that mutual respect there was back then."
The Spaniard suggested drivers are not be able to race as close as they did in Villeneuve's era due to a lack of respect between the competitors.
Writing on his blog for the Ferrari website, he added: "Unfortunately, these days, we no longer see this sort of fight because there are more difficulties to deal with.
"The cars are now dominated by aerodynamics and those sorts of passing moves are no longer possible.
"On top of that, there was definitely more respect then than there is now between us drivers, partly because they knew that, in those cars, they were risking their lives."
The two-time World Champion was involved in a flashpoint at the recent Bahrain GP when he and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton were involved in separate but similar incidents against defensive Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, as he veered to the edge of the track against both competitors.
Alonso opted to back off and failed to pass the German, yet Hamilton overtook Rosberg only by going beyond the edge of the track, which is forbidden.
Alonso, 30, will participate in the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend in the fourth race event of the F1 calendar.
He is fifth in the world championship and only 10 points behind Red Bull's leader Sebastian Vettel.