F1 News

Villeneuve sees Hamilton under pressure: "He risked too much"

21 April 2021 at 17:15
Last update 21 April 2021 at 18:36
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton seems to have a serious rival in Max Verstappen for the World Championship this season and Jacques Villeneuve believes the Brit could be feeling the pressure, and cites his risk-taking as evidence.

Risks

The Canadian ex-World Champion is always in for a rude awakening, and this time he shares his opinion with F1-insider.com. According to Villeneuve Hamilton is not used to taking risks anymore. "At the start, Lewis should have pulled back against Max at the first corner because he was on the outside. But he held on and thus ruined his race already in the first corner."

Villeneuve also has a reason for the slide Lewis made in pursuit of Verstappen after a slow Mercedes pit stop: "Lewis risked too much on the overlap. I doubt that would have happened to him in recent years. The red flag saved him. He was very lucky. He shouldn't rely on that from now on."

Verstappen advantage

Max Verstappen has an advantage over Hamilton, according to the Canadian, and that is his teammate: "Perez is the rookie in the Red Bull team and yet he is already stronger than Bottas, who is already on his fifth season with Mercedes. Perez can help Max more than Bottas can for Hamilton."