When Lewis Hamilton was accused of portraying 'himself on social media as Jesus' by F1 pundit

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve recently accused Lewis Hamilton of being overly dramatic and criticized him for treating F1 like it was a Hollywood movie during the 2018 season.

The Canadian driver is never the one to mince his words when it comes to giving out his most brutal takes on the F1 drivers. During the 2018 German GP qualifying, the Mercedes driver knelt beside his car in disappointment after he was knocked out of Q2 due to an issue with his car.

Hamilton's fortunes turned in the main race when his title rival and home favorite Nico Rosberg crashed in the final laps from the lead, giving the Brit an advantage in the title battle. After his win, Lewis Hamilton credited divine intervention for the victory and later called it the greatest drive of his career.

While appearing with Sky Italia as a pundit, Villeneuve said:

"He confuses Formula One with Hollywood. Everything he does is staged. He portrays himself on social media like he is Jesus. The way he knelt next to his car after his problem in qualifying looked like the suffering of Christ. And what he said afterward was the Sermon on the Mount. Then he gestured so dramatically on the podium that everyone could see who sent the sudden rain."

Lewis Hamilton praises F1 CEO for welcoming Hollywood into the paddock

The 38-year-old stated that he was grateful to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali for accomodating Hollywood in the sport so well, with the shooting for the F1-based movie APEX GP starring Brad Pitt taking place during the past few race weekends.

As per RacingNews365, Lewis Hamilton said:

"Everyone's felt incredibly welcome and there's a great vibe within the filming crew, with the actors and directors, everyone's just feeling a lot of love and feeling included which I think has been great. I think it's been well received. There's just so many people that have worked so hard to make it possible, with the great help of Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO and President] for example."

He added:

"This has never happened in our sport before. It's huge. So, hats off to the sport and to those that are running it, they are showing that we are progressive, we're moving forwards in a new way."

Although the principal shooting of the movie is currently halted due to the SAG-AFTRA writer's and actor's strikes taking place, it would be fascinating to see if else the crew continues to shoot during race weekends and in the paddocks when production resumes.