Former F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve thinks Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has issues with his boss Toto Wolff.
Hamilton has gone AWOL since his shocking and controversial defeat at the Abu Dhabi GP. Losing the race made him lose his world title as well, and it was something that happened due to reasons beyond his control.
Wolff was quick to come to the defence of his driver, and made his team protest the decision at Yas Marina. However, Mercedes ended up withdrawing their appeals, which means the seven-time world champion’s future is still very much up in the air.
Villeneuve thinks Hamilton has issues with Wolff, and that’s the reason he has yet to come out and make a statement.
“Lewis is also a bit more tired, he has had (some) easy seasons after (former teammate) Nico Rosberg’s departure and he really won’t want to have another year like he experienced last season,” he said, as quoted by Racingnews365.com.
“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 (Max) Verstappen would have simply led the whole race.”
Silence is bliss
“I also interpret Hamilton’s silence as him wanting to put some distance between himself and Wolff,” the former world champion 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.
“In doing so, Wolff suffered a lot of image damage, in my opinion. Hamilton is sensitive to that because he is thinking about his future in America, maybe even in Hollywood.”
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