Villeneuve praises Verstappen, fires veiled shots at Hamilton

Winning isn’t boring.

At least that seems to be the message from Jacques Villeneuve to those complaining about Max Verstappen’s recent Formula 1 dominance.

Canada’s only F1 champ also seemed to take some notso-subtle shots at six-time world champ Lewis Hamilton in a recent interview with olbg.com .

“Everyone has admired Lewis for so many years and how he was winning. The same as Max if not more regularly. He was lapping the whole field at times in his Mercedes,” Villeneuve said. “No one complained about that. So why are we complaining about Max being so dominant?”

Villeneuve, 52, said that he thinks it has everything to do with the Dutch racer’s tough exterior and stoic personality, a trait he seemed to point out that he thinks is very different than Hamilton’s.

“He is not trying to be nice, he is not trying to be friendly, he is just being him,” Villeneuve said of Verstappen. “That makes it easy for people to bash him. If he was a whiner and a fake trying to love everyone, no one would complain.”

Villeneuve also didn’t seem thrilled with the modern culture of Formula One, a glitzy sport that has grown even glitzier under the bright lights of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive.

“F1 is the most high-profile sport in the world right now. It is a theatre,” Villeneuve said. “You are almost not allowed to have a private life. Unless your private life is part of everyone’s he will keep being bashed.”

Villeneuve says that Verstappen has done a great job of continuing to focus on racing despite the distractions.

“It doesn’t bother him. That is what is amazing. He is there to race, and he keeps winning,” Villeneuve said.