‘Champions have sometimes just had enough’: Former F1 star Jacques Villeneuve questions whether Lewis Hamilton will see out the rest of the season after Mercedes’ struggles left him adrift of the title fight
- Lewis Hamilton finished in 13th in Imola, continuing his struggles this season
- His poor fortunes have led to suggestions that he may choose to retire soon
- Ex-F1 racer Jacques Villeneuve said ‘champions have sometimes had enough’
- He also claimed that Hamilton may prove to be an issue for his team this year
Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton will see out the rest of the season after his struggles at Mercedes left him adrift of the title fight – as he insisted ‘champions have sometimes just had enough’.
Villeneuve, who won the Drivers’ Championship in 1997, tasted the highs and lows of the sport after lifting his only trophy and then dramatically walking away midway through the 2006 campaign, having announced ‘screw this’.
And he has now pointed out that racers can decide to quit when the going gets tough, seemingly suggesting that the ailing Hamilton could have had enough.
Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve questioned if Lewis Hamilton will finish the season
Villeneuve (pictured) won the Drivers’ Championship in 1997 but chose to walk away in 2006
So far this year, he has endured a topsy-turvy experience, with a third-place finish in Bahrain followed by P10 in Saudi Arabia and P4 in Australia. He reached a new low at Imola, however, when he finished in 13th and was lapped by Max Verstappen.
In recent weeks, and at the start of the season, fans have voiced concern Hamilton would retire – and Villeneuve has said similar shock moves have happened before.
‘Will Hamilton still be there in two, three years?’ he wrote in his column for Formule1.nl. ‘Will he even reach the end of this season?
Hamilton finished in a lowly 13th in Imola, and he has already admitted he is not in the title fight
‘You can’t see into someone’s head. You can be down and depressed or you can be unable to deal with no longer winning.
‘Then maybe it’s time to decide life is better without racing. We’ve been surprised in the past – it’s happened that champions have sometimes just had enough.’
He has also claimed ‘megastar’ Hamilton may prove to be a problem for Mercedes, with team-mate George Russell catching the eye instead near the front of the grid.
‘At Mercedes, they now in any event need to learn how to lose,’ he added.
Villeneuve pointed out that past champions have had enough and opted to then quit the sport
‘For years, they drove everyone into the ground. If someone got closer, they just opened the throttle.
‘This year, they don’t have that advantage anymore.
‘George Russell is doing a good job in the role of underdog. He learned this at Williams, while Hamilton has always had something to fight for.
‘A few columns ago, I was already wondering how they will handle this within the team. At Imola, we already saw Toto Wolff has difficulty controlling himself.
George Russell has outshined Hamilton this year despite Mercedes’ struggles on the track
‘His radio message after the race spoke volumes. That wasn’t only aimed at Hamilton but the whole world. A bad result for Russell doesn’t generate criticism but for Hamilton it does.
‘This is the risk of having such a megastar in your team. Hamilton wasn’t in the right rhythm from the off this weekend. He also didn’t look aggressive enough, as if he couldn’t fight. That he ended up getting lapped can happen.
‘That’s the sum total of all the factors, plus the bad car.
‘He won’t keep having such terrible weekends and he will beat Russell. But it won’t be easy being the head of the Mercedes team right now.’