"If you are sitting there, not really as a motor racing enthusiast, and you turn on the TV to watch a spectacle then Formula One isn't that good, " says the Coleriane-born engineering guru.

"A big percentage of viewers are people who just want to switch on during the course of a Sunday afternoon and see something on TV.

"They want to see more racing, drivers side-by-side, five overtaking manoeuvres a lap. We should only know who the winner is going to be when the chequered flag comes out.

"That's really what the public wants to see - it needs to be gripping, keeping you on the edge of your seat."

One way to achieve this, says Anderson, now working as a television pundit, is to reverse the starting grid. He wants to see the fastest drivers start at the back of the grid, not the front.

Although a whole raft of new regulations are set to come into force in 2008, Anderson does not believe they propose an adequate solution to the problem.

"It's a long way to 2008, he said in an interview with Crash.net. " I've looked through some of the proposals and haven't seen anything I would be excited about to be honest.

"Around 2010-2011 there are bigger plans, but again I wouldn't lose any sleep over it yet because it's too far away to even consider. It will all change a thousand times before that. At this point in time I don't see anything that will make Formula One better for the public.

"I genuinely believe the cars and regulations have gone the wrong way in the last few years. The current cars are not good at following each other - they lose too much grip.

"You have the fastest car at the front in qualifying and the slowest car at the back, and then on Sunday we somehow expect some miracle to happen that means a slower car passes a faster one on a dirty part of the track when the grip level on the racing line is always better than that off it.

"You don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out that ain't going to happen. Really and truthfully, there has to be a change. What we have to do is create racing.

"In my opinion we should have reverse grids. The guy leading the championship should have to start at the back, and the guy who is suffering goes to the front. As you score more points that naturally will change. It isn't artificial.

"If you can win the championship that way it will truly be because you have beaten all the others. Not only do you have to be the fastest driver but you also need to be a clever driver; you have to understand the strategy and actually overtake people. It adds another challenge."