Jacques Villeneuve says positive Lewis Hamilton is ‘almost unbeatable’

Jacques Villeneuve says there are two versions of Lewis Hamilton. The one which is present right now in F1 2026, Villeneuve warns Charles Leclerc, is “almost unbeatable”.

While in 2025, we saw a downbeat Lewis Hamilton, one struggling to make an impact in his first Ferrari season, the seven-time World Champion has returned with renewed positivity in 2026, and has impressed so far at the Chinese Grand Prix. He will start Sunday’s race from P3, ahead of teammate Leclerc in an all-Ferrari second row.

Jacques Villeneuve says Lewis Hamilton is ‘almost unbeatable’ when positive

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While Leclerc outqualified Hamilton in the Melbourne season opener, and beat him to the final step of the podium, Hamilton made his intentions clear by applying late pressure on Leclerc in that battle for third.

Hamilton has had the beating of Leclerc over one lap in China, even if Leclerc did significantly reduce that margin to 0.013s in Grand Prix qualifying. Hamilton and Leclerc meanwhile took the fight to Mercedes’ George Russell during the Sprint, which was eventually won by Russell.

Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion, spoke of Hamilton as an almost unstoppable force when he is in this current, positive mindset.

Even more credit for Leclerc, then, who in these early stages of F1 2026, has been standing his ground.

“It’s nice to see Lewis like this,” said Villeneuve on Sky F1.

“There’s two Lewis’s. When he’s positive like this, he’s almost unbeatable. He’s quick. We’ve seen it today, because he beat, in qualifying, his teammate, who’s a pro of qualifying.

“He’s older, he’s got a lot of experience, but he still has that energy.

“Then, you have the Lewis like last year, it just goes down, and it drags a lot of negative energy with him, and that’s never nice to see.

“So if we can keep Lewis like this the whole season, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

Sky F1 presenter Simon Lazenby chipped in with some information which he says was passed on to him by Nico Rosberg, Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate, who beat Hamilton to the World Championship in 2016.

“Nico always goes on about it,” Lazenby began. “He said, ‘I just knew if he was down in the dumps, I could beat him, but if he was up, it was a difficult task, a totally different task’.”

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It is important to note that Shanghai was the scene of rare Hamilton 2025 success. He won last year’s Sprint race, which was Ferrari’s only form of victory that year.

Hamilton thrives around this circuit. He has won the Chinese Grand Prix a record six times.

Leclerc has openly admitted that this is something of a bogey track for him. It will be vital for Hamilton, therefore, to continue operating at a comparable level to Leclerc’s around the calendar.

The Ferrari’s will launch behind another all-Mercedes front row, consisting of Formula 1’s youngest ever polesitter Kimi Antonelli, and championship leader George Russell.

Set to start the Chinese GP from fourth, Leclerc reflected: “I’m not super happy about it, because P4 is not a great result.

“However, I have to say, I’m just not good on this track, and this has always been the case.

“I put a lot of effort into trying to turn the situation around, but for now, it’s not one of my best tracks, and that’s it.

“But, it’s okay. Honestly, with those cars starting P2, P3, P1, P4, after three laps, everything is quite chaotic, and we’ll be there.

“I’m happy with where I start, and tomorrow in the race, I normally feel a little bit better here, so I’m looking forward to that.”

On that note, Leclerc was asked whether we can expect to see Ferrari racing Mercedes again on Sunday, as was the case early in Saturday’s Sprint.

“I really hope so, but I don’t know,” he responded.

“I think when Mercedes are in their good window, they perform well, and I expect them to be in that good window tomorrow for the start.

“But if not, I hope we can be there to take the opportunity.”

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