Lewis Hamilton's F1 legacy BULLDOZED by champion

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton legacy BULLDOZED by F1 champion

Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 21 December 2025 17:53

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F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has launched a damning assessment of Lewis Hamilton's legacy in the sport.

Hamilton is a seven-time world champion, and is the most successful racer in the history of the sport, holding the joint record for the number of titles with Michael Schumacher, but the outright records for grand prix wins, podiums and pole positions.

At 40 years of age, Hamilton is still racing in the sport, but has only been able to add two more grands prix wins to his career tally in the last four seasons, while he has not challenged for a championship since 2021.

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In 2025, Hamilton finished sixth in the drivers' championship, and was unable to even get a single grand prix podium.

Hamilton suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of team-mate Charles Leclerc during his first season at Ferrari, with the Monegasque driver finishing 86 points ahead of Hamilton.

Now, Villeneuve has used evidence of team-mate battles for Hamilton throughout his career, as proof of what he believes to have been 'easy' titles for the Brit.

"It’s had a big impact because a lot of championships were won against a team-mate, and there was no real battle really," Villeneuve said on the High Performance podcast.

"The one fight he did have was against Nico, and he lost.

"Now he goes to Ferrari and has to get back to his fighting ways, and it looks like he got used to the easy years. It’s hard to get the diesel going again if you back off a bit, take it easy, or start thinking it’s easy. Once you start believing you’re untouchable, you slow down."

Is Hamilton the greatest driver of all time?

Villeneuve then compared Hamilton to four-time world champion Max Verstappen, and said: "That’s where Max makes the difference. Even a season where Red Bull will win every race easily, he’s on it as if that’s the last race of the championship and he’s behind in the points. Every single time.

"So when it becomes tough and he has to fight, he’s used to it. I think that makes a big difference in the process that Lewis has been going through.

"His championships weren’t difficult to go and win. Mercedes was miles ahead once the new engine came in, and every time things got close, they just turned up the power.

"It was all there, ready in hand. At that point, only a Mercedes could have won - almost with any driver on the grid. Then the battle was against your team-mate and then the question was what kind of team-mate did he have? That’s what you have to look at."

Villeneuve was then asked where Hamilton sits among the all-time greats of the sport: "That’s a tough one because he’s got all the records. Do you just look at the numbers, or do you look at how those championships happened, and then you quantify the good ones? That’s the key to the matter.

"If you look at the Prost-Senna era, they were the two greatest and they were stealing championships from each other. They had the best car like Lewis had at Mercedes, but they were the two best drivers fighting each other, so that gives it a lot of credibility and value."

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Jacques Villeneuve