F1: Villeneuve has opinion on Hamilton’s radio silence

Jacques Villeneuve has an opinion on everything and believes that Lewis Hamilton is doing some soul-searching over the course of the winter break, evaluating whether or not to continue in Formula 1.

“It depends on the car that Mercedes will give Hamilton, whether he can win easily with it or not,” Villeneuve told Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport. [Note: Villeneuve is referring to the fact Hamilton has always had the best car on the grid, combined with his talent, making it impossible to beat him.]

“Lewis is also a bit more tired, he has had [some] easy seasons after Nico Rosberg’s departure and he really won’t want to have another year like he experienced last season.

“He thought he could easily bring in the record eighth title and that didn’t happen.

“It’s like a diamond that you have in your hands and then suddenly it’s taken out of your hands. In this way it hurt much more than if Verstappen would have simply led the whole race.”

“I also interpret Hamilton’s silence as him wanting to put some distance between himself and Wolff,” Villeneuve explained.

“After all, you can lose with style, whereas Toto behaved like someone who is playing Monopoly. The moment he is losing, [he] throws the whole board into the air.”

With Wolff’s radio message of, “No Michael no, that was so not right”, going viral after Abu Dhabi, Villeneuve feels that Hamilton wants no association to it.

“In doing so, Wolff suffered a lot of image damage, in my opinion,” he said.

“Hamilton is sensitive to that because he is thinking about his future in America, maybe even in Hollywood.”