Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve warns that Lewis Hamilton is at risk of losing his credibility. Following a difficult start to the season with Ferrari, he suggests that the collaboration is increasingly starting to resemble a major PR stunt. The team has only achieved one podium finish in the first six Grands Prix and is now more than one hundred and fifty points behind championship leader McLaren.
In the run-up to the Emilia-Romagna GP and the first European race of the season, Lewis Hamilton’s year has not unfolded as hoped. The 40-year-old Brit has generally been outperformed by teammate Charles Leclerc, with the exception of a few strong performances during sprint races. In Shanghai, Hamilton clinched victory in the sprint, and in Miami, he finished on the podium. These occasional glimpses of his abilities notwithstanding, his debut year with Ferrari has largely been disappointing.
Former champion Jacques Villeneuve predicts that Hamilton’s attitude, which has appeared increasingly gloomy in the media in recent weeks, could potentially damage Ferrari’s confidence. “You hear that Hamilton is not at all satisfied,” Villeneuve told Vision4Sport. “Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc is trying harder and harder, but with Lewis, you mainly hear comments like: ‘I’m sorry,'” said Villeneuve. “It’s like with Lando Norris – once you start that, you inevitably burn out.”
‘Ferrari Loses Confidence in Hamilton’
“You lose your credibility and people lose their trust in you. Now, people are starting to think that Hamilton is just there for fun,” Villeneuve stated. “That’s not the image you want to project when you’re racing for a team like Ferrari – a team that is also very fickle. Ferrari is like a volcano; you need that fireworks. You need the passion, the spark to ignite things. If that spark is not there, it’s a serious problem. And they don’t have much time left.” With six races already behind us, a quarter of the anniversary season has already passed.
“At Mercedes, he (Hamilton) was allowed to take his time,” Villeneuve continued. “But not at Ferrari. There, you have to be ready and explode right away. The sprint race in China seemed to be the spark, but then no more fire came out. There was no dry grass to catch fire,” the Canadian joked. He referred to the many roadside fires that plagued the race weekend in Japan. Now that Ferrari is going to introduce upgrades in the upcoming races, Villeneuve is waiting until the GP of Monaco to assess whether Hamilton can overcome his current problems.
“The most important thing for Hamilton was to come to Ferrari with fresh energy,” Villeneuve concluded. “It wasn’t supposed to be a continuation of his Mercedes days. There, he had the attitude: ‘It will be fine, because I’m so good’. That’s not how it works at Ferrari. We’ll see how they fare in Europe. After a grueling few weeks, they’ve had time to catch their breath. Let’s wait until the GP of Monaco – then we’ll see what happens.”
