Jacques Villeneuve claims 32-win driver has been a better F1 world champion than Lewis Hamilton

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Lewis Hamilton is widely considered by many Formula 1 fans to be the greatest driver in the sport’s history.

Only Michael Schumacher has won as many drivers’ championships as Lewis Hamilton, and only Fernando Alonso has taken part in more Grand Prix.

After making his debut in 2007, Hamilton was immediately a championship contender, missing out on winning the title to Kimi Raikkonen on the final day of the season.

Hamilton was a world champion a year later with McLaren, before winning six titles with Mercedes, and is now trying to emulate that success with Ferrari.

Schumacher made an eerily accurate prediction about Hamilton after winning his maiden championship, and he’s the only driver with more than 100 victories to his name.

However, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve doesn’t believe that Hamilton is the most complete racer in Formula 1 history.

Instead, he thinks Aston Martin star Alonso is a better champion, and his reasoning is extremely interesting.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Jacques Villeneuve says Fernando Alonso is a better F1 champion than Lewis Hamilton

Villeneuve was asked on The Red Flags Podcast to rank some of the greatest world champions in Formula 1 history.

He needed to choose between Alonso and Hamilton and said: “I will put Alonso 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 he woke up again and started winning again. Too many of those championships were in cars that even Bottas would have won the championship if Hamilton had not been there.

“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. He really fought hard for that.

“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.”

READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2

Jacques Villeneuve explains why Fernando Alonso has only won two F1 world championships

Villeneuve was then speaking about why Alonso only won two championships and 32 Grand Prix, and explained that his team selection has always hampered him.

Alonso wrote off the 2025 season before the first race in Australia, something he’s had to do on plenty of occasions during his 22-season career in Formula 1.

Villeneuve continued: “He’s been bad at that. Hamilton made the right choices at the right time.

“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.

“When there were teammates at McLaren, in the end, Hamilton, even though it was Hamilton’s first season. 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.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Why Jacques Villeneuve doesn’t think Fernando Alonso had a ‘fair’ chance against Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007

Alonso and Hamilton famously didn’t get on at McLaren in 2007, when the Brit made his Formula 1 debut.

Villeneuve was asked about that season and said: “You have to take into account that McLaren signed him, or Ron Dennis signed him as a double world champion.

“He did it for the sponsors and all that. Then Hamilton announced and said, OK, Hamilton is our champion. We don’t like you, Fernando. Excuse me?

“When the team boss unbalances internally the team like that, you have to fight back, and that’s what happened.

“Alonso was not in a fair field at that point, and he had to fight his own battle alone in the team. That actually destroyed the team, ultimately.”

Fernando Alonso upset with Lewis Hamilton during his debut Ferrari season

The last time Alonso and Hamilton were head-to-head on track was at the beginning of the 2023 Formula 1 season.

Alonso had just joined Aston Martin, and his six podiums in the first eight races meant he looked like Max Verstappen’s strongest challenger to win the championship that year.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t end his decade-long wait for a 33rd race win, and Aston Martin’s updates failed to add any performance to the car.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has once again left them fighting on different parts of the circuit.

That didn’t stop Alonso being furious with Hamilton in Monaco this year, before his power unit eventually gave up, denying him his first points of the campaign.

It’s been claimed that Hamilton and Alonso will never be best friends, based purely on how heated their rivalry was nearly 20 years ago.

However, the mutual respect they enjoy is well deserved given they’ve taken part in nearly 800 races combined.