Speaking to The Action Network, former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has claimed we won’t see the last of Lewis Hamilton anytime soon, saying the 40-year-old can drive for another 10 years.
The Canadian believes Lando Norris won’t be a champion this year, despite McLaren’s performances, due to in-house rivalry with Oscar Piastri.
Villeneuve also thinks this era of F1 is not comparable to the past and that Jackie Stewart has the equivalent of 5/6 world championships.
Please read the full interview below:
Q: Lewis Hamilton turned 40 yesterday. How many years realistically do you think he's got left in F1, and how much longer can he go on?
JV: It depends if Lewis Hamilton has the same hunger as Fernando Alonso or not. He still wants one championship, and he wants it with Ferrari. So that should be enough to give him the hunger. But if the going gets tough, will he just think, will I be [a[ fighter and warrior like Alonso or will he think it’s time do something else with my life?
But physically there's no issue. He’s super fit, he's super strong, he can go on another 10 years, there's no problem there. But it's all in the head and his desire.
It’s always like that with sports. Age is not the issue.
It's how (mentally) are you ready to give it all, to do all the training necessary, to go to bed, wake up in the morning and think only about that and focus. At some point in your life, maybe it loses its importance or its priority. And that's when you go down. Not because there's a physical direct effect.
It is draining but at the same time it's what keeps you alive. It's what drives you. And you realize when you stop it, you realize two months into it, ‘Gosh, this is boring.’
You need that lifestyle. You need that adrenaline rush that you keep going. If you're passionate, if it's something you really love, it's a drug.
Take Nico Rosberg, he was happier not racing. That's just not the same level of passion.
Q: If he were to win this year, might he think there's nothing more he can achieve, and would he be the greatest of all time?
JV: There’s never the greatest of all time. There’s too much evolution with the cars, it's too different.
If you take someone like Jackie Stewart, he's impressive because he won three championships in the day where two, three or five drivers would die a year or get really hurt, and with cars that would break down in half of the races. Yet he still managed to win a lot. Same thing with Fittipaldi and so on. In a way three championships is probably more impressive than five or six now.
Also, when you get a superior car now, you end up winning almost 24 races instead of 15 because there's 10 more races in the calendar than there used to be. So, the numbers are skewed as well. The overall number of points you get; a win is 25 points. It used to be 8, then 9, then 10. So that skewes it as well. You can’t compare eras.
Q: Briatore said he couldn't understand Ferrari's logic in signing Hamilton when they had such a good pairing in Leclerc and Sainz?
JV: That's very short-sighted from Briatore suggesting he can’t see the logic of signing Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. You just have to look at the value of Ferrari the minute they signed him. You can't look at Ferrari just as a racing team. It's a whole industry. Yes, they are there to win, but winning helps them sell more cars and adds to the value of Ferrari.
That's what the business is and signing Lewis was worth millions and millions, so it was the best move they've ever done.
Q: Is it the most high-profile signing in F1 since Schumacher left Benetton for Ferrari?
JV: Yes, Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari is the most high-profile F1 move since Michael Schumacher left Bentton for Ferrari. Independent of race results, Lewis Hamilton is the biggest driver of all time because of all the following he has.
He's very different. He’s unique. He’s broken the mould. There's a lot that hangs on him. He has the biggest image. His image goes beyond F1. And there's not many drivers like that.
Take Verstappen out of F1. Nobody cares. Take Hamilton out of F1, people care. So yes, it is the biggest signing. And Ferrari is also one of the biggest brands in the world, if not the biggest. So put the two together, yeah, of course, it's amazing.
Q: You talked about brands. Mercedes signed with Adidas just after Hamilton left. Who do you think would team up with Ferrari? Can you see a company like Nike, for instance?
JV: It's become very difficult to judge who signs whom and for what now, even brand-wise, because sometimes they will just take Instagram numbers. It's not done like it used to be where there was proper research being made. It's very difficult to figure it out. But obviously it brings a lot of attention.
F1 is the biggest sport and the most watched sport in the world. So obviously brands want to be associated with it. And F1 has become very American. So that's opened a huge market. That wasn't the case in the past.
It is also a market that does not require an American driver. Where in the past it would have purely been linked to an American driver.
Ultimately, if you think about it, this is the first time that there is a sport that is not ‘American’ that is actually big in America.
NFL, baseball, basketball, hockey. So this is the first time there's a sport that is global that includes America.
Q: Given that 2026 is such a watershed year for the sport, what can we expect in 2025? Is it people marketing time?
JV: It's dangerous because the expectations are so high for this 2025 season. We had such an amazing second half of the season in 2024. And it was surprising. It was not expected. How all the forces converged to give us an amazing end of the season.
2025 should be a continuation of that because a lot of efforts and resources will be put on to 2026 and ‘25 should be an evolution of ‘24. I don't see a team reinventing the wheel just for one season. It would have happened in the past before the budget cap, but now with the budget cap, you need to kind of make a decision.
Q: Do you focus on 2026 or do you focus on winning 2025 and then have a crappy 2026?
JV: Winning in 2025 means you can afford to have a bad 2026. It's still a championship. It’s not a stupid way to go either. If you think that every other team will focus on 2026 and you'll be the only one that’s putting all your balls into 2025, then why not?
Q: Who's going to be the world champion?
JV: The way the season ended I would have put the dice a little bit more on Lando and McClaren. But the issue there will be the internal battle between the two drivers. McLaren have not and will not handle that well and they will eat each other's points away. So even though they probably should be the champion, they might not be.
But you know, Lewis could have a shot at it. He finished on a high note. It will be an interesting battle between Lewis and Leclerc.
You see what's come out in the media at the moment, Ferrari is really pushing Lewis right now. There's a big image happening. Either he's pushed and it's amazing. And if it's not, then it will will pump LeClerc up. So basically it's win-win for Ferrari right now.
Lando should be the natural one fighting for the championship. But the internal battle and the fact that McLaren doesn't seem to handle this internal rivalry in a very positive way, then it might fall more into Lewi’s hands, seeing how Ferrari ended up last season.
Q: Can you see Piastri leaving in a year or two if he feels that Lando is being given priority?
JV: There's always this question about, 'do think his driver will leave to go somewhere else?' The first question to ask is how many teams want which drivers?
Piastri did some good races, but he did not do a season right now that deserves every team wanting him yet. He still needs to prove that he's a constant contender.
Q: Who will win the constructors?
JV: It should be a battle between Ferrari and McLaren for the constructors title.
The McLaren drivers won't cost the team points, they will cost the driver points. But who remembers the constructors? Everybody remembers that Verstappen was the champion with Red Bull this year. So ultimately Red Bull is the champion. That's the perception.
Q: Who's going to surprise us in 2025?
JV: Who will surprise us in 2025? I'm curious to see Sainz with Williams. His first tests were impressive because the car went faster than it had been before. And he's generally been a team builder, everywhere he's been.
So in a team that really needs it, let's see what the effect is. It could be an amazing step forward which is the biggest surprise of the year.
Q: Who could be the big disappointment?
JV: I would say Aston Martin will be the biggest disappointment of 2025, not because they will do a bad job but because people are expecting them to start winning with Adrian Newey there. But, he hasn't had time yet to have an effect on the tea. The expectations from outsiders and fans will be misplaced.
It will be disappointing not because of bad results but because they won't be what people are wanting and hoping to see with Newey there. It takes time.
Q: Who do you think might be the first casualty? Who will be the Perez of 25?
JV: Tsunoda will be the first driver to leave the grid. He’s only there because of Honda. At some point this will stop. And the writing is quite clear that this is his last season with the Red Bull family anyway. And I don't see any team wanting him unless there's a big Honda push.
Q: Where does that leave Liam Lawson, then?
JV: It's a big chance for Liam Lawson, it's a big opportunity, but we've seen drivers put into the main team right away collapse very quickly. So, we'll see how mentally strong he is and how good he really is, because we don't know yet. I mean, you cannot take his F2 season, his Japanese season or his races against Tsunoda as a benchmark.
Contractually Lawson is there to help Verstappen. But in his own head he's not. In his head he's there to replace Max. So, he will try to be tough and quick.
Hopefully it will put Max under pressure and push Max to drive even better. This way it helps the team to make progress.
Q: What would be a good finish for Lawson, then? In the top six? Is that really pushing it?
JV: If it's not a winning car, so they're not winning the championship, in which case you would have to be P2 or nothing, then a good finish for Lawson would be one place behind Verstappen or two places behind him, that's it. Not anything more.
If you're winning races, you make a big points tally. Because first to second is a big difference. If you're finishing third, fourth, fifth, the point difference is tiny.
Q: Would you change the point system then?
JV: Yes, I’d change the points system. The points system is awful. It's really old fashioned. It's too weighted to the winner. And half the field doesn't score points. So, you see them fighting like mad for 15th place.
Q: So, what would you like to see for the winner? 15 perhaps?
JV: Who knows, but at least the last guy finishing or anyone qualifying should get a point. So 20th gets a point. Someone who's done 15 races and he qualified 15 times, he should have more points than one who finishes last twice.
I guess that's more the American system where every little step is worth something to fight for. That would be a full revamp of the pointing system.
Q: Can you see that happening?
JV: I can’t see it happening to that extent. You know F1 has a very difficult time to adapt and modernize in that sense. There's a lot of old school, and I am one that's part of the old school. I often have a hard time with lot of modernization of these kind of rules but the point system has been old fashioned for way too long now.
Q: What's next for Perez?
JV: Sergio Perez should take the money and enjoy life. Endurance racing. F1 is done. He'll never get back. He was actually done and then Red Bull took him.
And when Red Bull took him, that gave him a little spark, that gave him the hunger that made him (for a couple of years) go much better than he had been. Now it's extinguished.
Q: Spa signed on for six more years as a venue – two fallow years. Thoughts?
JV: There’s too many races geographically which are very close to each other. There's more venues in Europe that want to have races, but there's no space in the calendar. Europe is not a big moneymaker for F1.
The teams want it, the fans want it, but money-wise, this is not the best place in the world to be for F1. You cannot suddenly remove races from the Middle East, from the East, from North America, from the places that are big money-making, from the new markets, and you still need to go to Africa. So you need to open up some markets. That might explain the Spa deal. You’re not reducing the amount of races in Europe.
With regard to Spa specifically, the modern cars have outgrown the track. Because a corner like Le Rouge is not a corner anymore. It's just dangerous. Even Pouho has been flat once or twice. Blanchimont is not even a corner. They can go side by side so the cars have too much downforce and those corners are not corners anymore, they're just dangerous for the sake of being dangerous without being corners.
It's a shame because it's a beautiful track; it's so much fun to drive. It's one my favourites as there's good racing as well. But I always find it pointless to have a dangerous corner that doesn't need to be driven.
Q: Cape Town submitted a bid this week for a race in South Africa. Would you like to see them there or elsewhere in Africa?
JV: The modern track at Kyalami wasn’t very nice. The old track was fun. but I don't think you could even do it now. Half of it doesn't exist anymore.
You probably need two races in Africa and you need it somewhere else, somewhere in proper middle Africa. But I don't know enough about Africa to say what would be a good landscape. F1 needs more than just a racetrack. It needs infrastructure, the hotels, the airports. It needs everything around it.
Q: Which tracks in Europe do you think might be under threat in the next few years?
JV: Well, they made it clear that it was the end of Zandvoort, which is a shame. I don't understand it because it's bold, it's amazing. It's a great race and it's different. What's fun about Zandvoort is it looks different than most other tracks.
It's like Monaco. So, it's fun. You need tracks that are different. When you go to all these new modern tracks, they all look the same. So, it becomes very redundant.
You just want to make sure that there's easier hotels to get to because it's also become very difficult and expensive for the media.
Take Austria. Great race, great venue. There's no hotels. You need to either rent a room and a farm which makes it complicated with the amount of fans that you have now.
Q: Could Silverstone be under threat?
JV: Silverstone is complicated. They've done an amazing job with the traffic and the road system. It really works well. It's surprising. Its an amazing job they do every year at Silverstone, but it's still complicated."
But we thought there would always be a German Grand Prix, there would always be a French Grand Prix. Guess what? They're expendable. The difference with Silverstone in the UK is that 80 % of the teams are based around there, so the teams want it. They put lot of pressure to make sure that the race stays in the UK.
The issue often with the old venues, they're not VIP enough and F1 has made a step change with the crowds, the guests, with the hostelry, with the restaurants. Old fashion racetracks lack that.
Q: What about the new names coming through, like Bortoletto, Bearman, and Hadjar? Who do you expect to make an impression out of the young guns?
JV: No idea what to expect out of Bortoletto. No idea. Formula 2 has never been a good judge of drivers. So, it's pointless until they get into F1. But right now they get into F1 with so little experience.
It's very difficult to understand how you can get to that top level in the biggest sport in the world so quickly at such a young age with so little experience. I find that quite surprising.
They get a lot of simulator work, which allows them to be quick but then you also see what happened with Antonelli in Monza.
Q: Is it a danger to have these young, inexperienced kids? We’ve seen Colapinto crash a few times.
JV: Franco Colapinto damaged his chances. If you are given the golden chance, it's for you to make the most of it. He can’t cry about it. He got a few races out of this in F1. Not many people get that so it's already impressive that he got that chance.
I'm not sure what will happen with his future. He's still a quick driver. But what he showed is he didn't judge the situation really well.
Q: Alonso – how long can he go on?
JV: Aston Martin themselves know it will all take time. I'm talking about the fans, not the team. The fans put two and two together and they make six. The expectation is they have signed Adrian Newey and they can now start winning. It takes time to build the people around you. It takes time to design a car. It takes time to do everything. So, 2025 is not the year.
It doesn't happen like that. Internally, they know. The problem is external.
Part of the problem is that half of the media is Instagram media. It's not proper media, not proper journalists. And there's less and less proper journalists. Right now, it's anyone who wakes up, writes a blog, and he's a journalist. And those are the ones who really don't actually understand it. They're more like journalist fans.
Those are the ones who will build up false expectations and do the damage. That's all. But internally, they know.
Alonso knows what he needs to do now […] to show that he's still a step above. Like he did when he was at Ferrari and Ferrari wasn't a winning car. Like he did at McLaren, when the McLaren was a dog, had an awful engine, and he still managed to fight like a madman. It was impressive.
If he keeps doing that, then they'll keep him. Because that means the day the car can win, he's there.
Q: But in a worst-case scenario, and he did go, who would be, in your opinion, a good choice for Stroll? Max?
JV: Lawrence Stroll would need someone that's very strong mentally and hard-headed to replace Fernando Alonso.
Max Verstappen would be more like, what's my next step? You win with Ferrari, you win with Mercedes not with Aston Martin. Like Lewis Hamilton, he wants to win.
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