Hamilton ranked behind Alonso: 'He often completely disappears'

11:01, 23 Jul

byKada Sarkozi

Already in his rookie campaign back in 2007, Lewis Hamilton was battling against Fernando Alonso when the two were teammates at McLaren. When ranking the two world champions, Jacques Villeneuve chose to go with the Spaniard.

On The Red Flags Podcast, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve was tasked with ranking world champions in a bracket format.

When it came to a decision between Alonso and seven-time champion Hamilton, the Canadian ended up choosing the current Aston Martin driver.

"Because Hamilton has too many downs," he began. "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 he woke up again and started winning again."

He further argued that in some of those campaigns with Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas would have been also crowned champion.

Therefore, he also sees Hamilton's title-winning campaign back in 2008 standing out, where he was fighting against Felipe Massa. "That put him in a place where he became complacent. He forgot how hard he had to fight. You can see it now. It’s a big shock to him that, actually, no, he has to fight as hard as he did in his first and second season, because the first championship he had, amazing."

"But after that, when the car became superior, he had too many easy years. He always had seasons where he had a few races where he disappeared. He wasn’t there anymore, and suddenly the light turned on again, and he was a killer again. Whereas Alonso is always there," he added about the current Ferrari driver.

Hamilton had a difficult start to his time at Ferrari. The Briton is yet to step on the podium in a Grand Prix. However, he did bring the Scuderia its first Sprint victory in China.

Alonso 'bad at choosing teams'

Alonso's last title dates back to 2006, while he is yet to step on the top of the podium since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

"At the same time, there was no way of knowing that Mercedes would have that engine, which was so much above the rest. That was a gamble. That was a big gamble, and it worked out. Alonso got close twice to winning with Ferrari until the last race. That little difference would have made the world."

He concluded: "He’s not great at choosing his teams, and he’s very good at making enemies, even within teams. But as a driver, he’s always on it.”

The Formula 1 season continues with the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend. Last year, Hamilton won in the Ardennes, after George Russell was disqualified for his car being under the minimum weight limit.