Outspoken former Formula 1 boss Eddie Jordan predicts that Ferrari will be a mighty force with Lewis Hamilton in the team but warns that his replacement, teenager Kimi Antonelli, is not for Mercedes.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, announced earlier this year, ‘broke the internet’ and sent shares of the great Italian marque upwards. It was an F1 ‘marriage’ meant to be with Mercedes losing out on a driver they have been associated with for two decades.
Hamilton became the sport’s most successful driver of all time thanks to Mercedes Power. A seven-time F1 World Champion and 105-time Grand Prix winner with the team, he will ditch them in 2025 to launch the next chapter of his remarkable sporting journey.
The timing for Hamilton’s move to Maranello is good, says 76-year-old Jordan, speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, who predicted: “Lewis, at the beginning of the year he was without any doubt pretty much focused on joining Ferrari, getting the right people, and making sure that he had Fred Vasseur on board.”
Jordan: Ferrari are going to be a big team next year
The Irishman continued: “They will be overjoyed to see the re-emergence of Lewis because no amount of saying to Ferrari, ‘Say look what we’re doing at Mercedes, don’t worry about that, we can beat George, we can beat everyone, we’re going to be powerful’.”
“And that Mercedes team is going to be strong going forward, but Ferrari is going to be incredibly strong. Lewis is right back on his game. And he’s now eyeing up a championship fight for next year. And who’s to say that he’s wrong?” added Jordan.
Mercedes needed to fill Hamilton’s big shoes to find a partner for George Russell to take the team forward. A swap with Ferrari-reject but experienced and ultra-quick Carlos Sainz would’ve been an option.
But word is that Wolff would sign Max Verstappen at any given opportunity even if Russell has been primed as a kid to lead the Silver Arrows. The Dutchman is who the Austrian coveted most. But for now, that option seems to have stalled, hence the Kimi-Experiment.
Too much Mercedes pressure for Kimi Antonelli
With Verstappen not happening, after a decade of dishing out $40 million salaries to Hamilton, team boss Toto Wolff went with the ultra-cheaper option by signing 18-year-old, highly-hyped but unproven Kimi Antonelli.
The New Kid on the Block did a handful of laps before he promptly binned it big time within ten minutes of the start of his first official F1 session, in a Merc at his home Italian Grand Prix. Ending the most disappointing and ultimately underwhelming ten-minute stint we have seen from a rookie in FP1 over vthe years.
Nevertheless, a day later Antonelli was confirmed as Hamilton’s replacement for 2025, a move which Jordan disagreed with: “I thought the pressure of Mercedes would be too much for Kimi and his debut, and that’s the way it was; he spun out and caused a lot of damage to the car.
“I still believe that there’s a place for Kimi, but it’s not in Mercedes; that’s the point I’m trying to make. I don’t care how quick he is; he should be placed somewhere that will give Toto and his team the chance to learn for a year and come up that way,” was Jordan’s alternative.
For Hamilton, whose 2007 F1 rookie season was outstanding, he might’ve been World Champion that first year if not for McLaren politics. He did it a year later. Can the same work for Antonelli?
