{"id":82712,"date":"2025-08-21T13:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82712\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:59:08","slug":"lewis-hamiltons-cool-vegan-guy-persona-called-out-in-brutal-max-verstappen-comparison-f1-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82712\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton’s ‘cool vegan guy’ persona called out in brutal Max Verstappen comparison | F1 | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s \u2018cool vegan guy\u2019 persona has been called out by seven-time Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian, who raced in Formula One for Williams and McLaren<\/a>, believes that a killer instinct is what separates the 40-year-old from reigning world champion Max Verstappen<\/a>. Hamilton made the switch to the vegan lifestyle in 2017, adopting a plant-based diet for ethical and environmental reasons.<\/p>\n

The Brit has been vocal in telling his adoring fans to boycott animal exploitation for entertainment purposes and investigate the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. He even invested in a restaurant chain, Neat Burger, alongside Hollywood<\/a> icon Leonardo DiCaprio, which served vegan alternatives to popular high-street fast food items. However, earlier this year, the organisation opted to permanently close its remaining UK locations. Even his dog, Roscoe, follows a vegan diet.<\/p>\n

However, according to Montoya, Hamilton\u2019s veganism is symbolic of the reasons behind his recent struggles. \u201cI don\u2019t get it,\u201d he told CoinPoker<\/a>. \u201cHamilton wants to be portrayed as this cool vegan guy who doesn’t want to hurt any pets or any animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that guy shouldn’t be a racecar driver. Because the guy that wants to be a successful racing driver is the person that doesn’t mind crushing people in his head. He does whatever it takes to win. That is what Lewis used to be; that is what Max is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from what you hear, he’s working really, really hard, and he really wants success. That is very good to see, but he’s probably not getting enough traction within the team to get the changes. It’s really hard to get traction when the other guy on your team is quicker than you.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter<\/a>, or join our WhatsApp community<\/a> here.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is in somewhat of a funk heading into the post-summer break stretch. The seven-time world champion has failed to score a podium finish in his first 14 race weekends as a Ferrari<\/a> driver, and after challenging weekends in Belgium and Hungary, his confidence appears to be at an all-time low.<\/p>\n

The Stevenage-born racer declared his performances as \u201cuseless\u201d after qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he failed to reach Q3 for the third time in a row, including sprint shootouts. He also told Ferrari<\/a> to \u201cchange driver\u201d if they want better results.<\/p>\n

Verstappen, meanwhile, has been extracting the absolute maximum out of his machinery in 2025, scoring two wins for Red Bull<\/a>, who sit fourth in the Constructors\u2019 Championship standings. That said, the four-time world champion is only 15 points ahead of George Russell<\/a> in the standings, and has scored just one podium in his last seven Grands Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton\u2019s \u2018cool vegan guy\u2019 persona has been called out by seven-time Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,9049,831,372,6537,8567,832,3006,3803,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-82712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}