Fernando Alonso is better than Lewis Hamilton, according to Jacques Villeneuve

Lewis Hamilton is arguably regarded as the best F1 driver to have ever graced the sport by many. However, Jacques Villeneuve disagreed with such claims, as he chose Fernando Alonso as a better driver than the Briton. The Canadian is known for his fair share of controversial opinions about the F1 sphere, as the Alonso vs Hamilton claim joins the list.

Villeneuve is a former Drivers' world champion himself and battled with Michael Schumacher for the title in 1997. The 54-year-old prevailed through and after leaving the sport for good in 2006, and became an expert in the racing world.

Moreover, his statements have often been polarizing in the F1 paddock, and the former champion was back at it again at the Red Flag podcast. He ranked the F1 world champions against each other, ranking Hamilton higher than the 1979 drivers' champion, Jody Scheckter.

Villeneuve then faced two-time champion Fernando Alonso in the following round, where the Spaniard had the upper hand in his eyes, as he said:

"I will put Alonso [ahead], because Hamilton has too many downs. Even though he's got all the championships, it's not the quantity of championships. If you look at every season, there's always been two, three, four races where he was completely disappearing, then suddenly woke up again and started winning again. And too many of those championships were in a car that like even [Valtteri] Bottas would have won the championship if Hamilton had not been there." "And that put him in a place where he became complacent… and he forgot how hard he had to fight, and you can see it now."

Lewis Hamilton has won seven world championships, 105 race wins, and 104 pole positions in his 368 race starts on the grid.

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Lewis Hamilton needs to get his mojo back to survive at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain - Source: Getty

After racing for Mercedes for the past dozen years, Lewis Hamilton chose to move to Ferrari for possibly his last chapter in F1. The move was bundled with a host of expectations, which the Briton has not met, according to a section of the F1 paddock.

While such struggles could be due to just adapting to the new team and the car, Jacques Villeneuve did not give him any concession for such factors. Moreover, Hamilton's subpar run of results led the Canadian to assert that the former needs to find his mojo back, as he said on the same podcast:

"Ferrari is a tough team and you need to be really strong to survive it. So he needs a helping hand, uh to to get to get his mojo back."

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton's performance has witnessed a change in fortune as the Briton secured P4 results in succession at the Austrian and British GP, and is now aiming to have a better second half of the 2025 season.

Edited by Hitesh Nigam