"A little tired at times": Jacques Villeneuve compares Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen's F1 2021 season

Former F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve has claimed that Lewis Hamilton has appeared to be tired at times this year, while Max Verstappen has been consistently performing at a high level.

Villeneuve, who won the 1997 world championship with Williams, feels that Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have been making tiny mistakes throughout the year, but are lucky that it hasn’t had a big impact on the standings.

In a video posted by F1 as part of the build-up to the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend, Villeneuve said:

“Max has definitely been always on the top of his form, where Lewis seems to be a little bit tired at times, the saving grace for Mercedes and Lewis says they don't pay a high price for mistakes. And they've done a lot of tiny ones this year. You don't see it in the in the points at the end of the year.”

Earlier in the season, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes made several mistakes that cost them crucial points. At Imola, the Briton locked up on fresh tires and slid into the gravel. If not for a lucky red flag period triggered by the crash between George Russel and Valtteri Bottas around the same time, Hamilton could have lost more points.

Later, in Baku, Hamilton forgot to dis-engage his “magic button” — used by Mercedes to control brake bias and warm up-front tires — causing him to lock up into turn one at the final restart and end up scoring no points.

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Mind games between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to continue at Abu Dhabi?

Lewis Hamilton has been in the sport for 16 years and as such, is no stranger to mind games. In his rookie season, then two-time world champion teammate Fernando Alonso put immense pressure on Hamilton by employing psychological tactics in their battle for the title.

At the 2016 season finale, in an effort to beat his team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg, Hamilton drove at an incredibly slow pace while leading. By comparison, neither Hamilton nor Verstappen have employed any egregious psychological tactics against each other throughout this season.

But at the penultimate race in Saudi Arabia last weekend, Max Verstappen was annoyed at the tactics employed by Hamilton during the early restarts.

Given the close nature of this championship, along with the never-give-up attitude of the title protagonists, both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are bound to employ any tools available to them in order to win the title. This could lead to potential fireworks that could take the sheen off the closest championship battle in recent memory.