Villeneuve gives advice to Verstappen: "Don't just beat Hamilton on the track"

F1 News

23 August 2020 at 15:15
Last update 23 August 2020 at 16:12
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton seems to be on his way to his seventh world championship this season. This puts the driver on an equal footing with Michael Schumacher. In his career, he hasn't had much competition from his teammate. Not at all now that Valtteri Bottas is driving for Mercedes because Hamilton is clearly the boss there. According to Jacques Villeneuve, this feeling of dominance is what makes Hamilton so unbeatable. 

Villeneuve knows how a driver can get into Hamilton's head. "You've seen in the past that Nico Rosberg managed to get into his head and eventually beat him. Bottas can still try that, but now there are too few drivers who are willing to do anything to win," the Canadian explained to Sky Sports. 

Getting in his head off the track

Villeneuve, therefore, has advice for Hamilton's competition to beat him. "You have to get inside his head outside the track. To beat him alone on the track just isn't good enough. He will always come back harder and stronger". According to Villeneuve, it is very hard to get into another driver's head. "You often see that champions have something extra. That they always want to win."

"Rosberg only kept that up for a year and then stopped because it was simply mentally too hard to keep up longer," Villeneuve explains. "Lewis can certainly be beat, but he feels very strong with his current team, Mercedes," concludes Villeneuve.