Jacques Villeneuve has taken Lewis Hamilton 's radio silence over his F1 future to mean he is seriously considering retiring from the sport and could take up a second career in show business.
Hamilton, 37, is said to still be fuming over the way he lost the drivers' title to Max Verstappen at the end of last season, and is waiting on the outcome of an investigation into what happened at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
If he is not satisfied by the FIA 's findings and actions at the end of that probe, the Brit may well decide that his time dominating the sport has come to an end and seek out a fresh challenge.
Villeneuve believes that new career might be found across the pond, where Hamilton - who will team up with George Russell next season at Mercedes - has a number of friends and contacts in Hollywood as a result of his stardom.
The 1997 world champion went on to say he believes the Brit would want to put as much distance between himself and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff as possible, as the Austrian has "suffered a lot of image damage".
"I interpret Hamilton's silence as him wanting to put some distance between himself and Wolff," Villeneuve told La Gazzetta dello Sport .
"After all, you can lose with style, whereas Toto behaved like someone who is playing Monopoly. The moment he is losing, [he] throws the whole board into the air.
"In doing so, Wolff suffered a lot of image damage, in my opinion. Hamilton is sensitive to that because he is thinking about his future in America, maybe even in Hollywood."
Hamilton still has two years left on the deal he signed at the start of last season, but Wolff has already admitted that he could walk away from that contract.
It would be a move similar to Nico Rosberg in 2016, when the German left abruptly after winning the title and left Mercedes scrambling to find a replacement.
Regardless of what the Brit thinks of the outcome of the FIA probe, Villeneuve went on to say he believes Hamilton might be convinced to stay if he is given another strongly competitive car.
"It depends on the car that Mercedes will give Hamilton, whether he can win easily with it or not," the Canadian added.
"Lewis is also a bit more tired, he has had [some] easy seasons after Nico Rosberg's departure and he really won't want to have another year like he experienced last season.
"He thought he could easily bring in the record eighth title and that didn't happen. It's like a diamond that you have in your hands and then suddenly it's taken out of your hands.
"In this way it hurt much more than if Verstappen would have simply led the whole race."
