Villeneuve: Hamilton behaved like a ‘spoilt child’

Jacques Villeneuve has criticized Lewis Hamilton by saying the Briton behaved like a ‘spoilt child’ after securing his third Formula 1 Drivers’ title.

 

Hamilton had a dominant season after securing the crown in Austin with his tenth victory of the year and with three races still to go.

Then again, in those remaining three races, it was his Mercedes fellow team member Nico Rosberg that appears to be in better tone, winning in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi, while Hamilton kept up his drop-off in form and blaming the car for his form.

Villeneuve said in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin, “Lewis had a simple championship because we did not see the fighting, aggressive Nico from last year in the first part of the season. Nico began to do that only after the US GP, when Lewis reached his peak.

“Once he [Nico] lost the world championship, it seemed to change him, I don’t know, but after he was a killer and Lewis reacted really badly and showed the negative side of his character.

“He showed he cannot be humble. He has won three world championships, but cannot rejoice and he behaved like a spoilt little child, who has had his toy taken away.

“He has since not behaved like a great champion.”

Villeneuve also warned that Hamilton should be cautious about blaming the car for his drop-off in form: “He is the one who sits in the car. He is the one who works with his engineer. It is up to him. Whatever kind of a set-up they have got, it seems better for Nico now and maybe that is because Nico has worked at it.

“If that’s the case, then Lewis was maybe not as superior as it looked – maybe he just had a set-up that was better. That’s why he should be careful when he says something like that.”