“Ferrari is going to be incredibly strong, Lewis is right back on his game” : Former F1 boss predicts possible championship year for Lewis Hamilton
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is all set to replace Carlos Sainz at Scuderia Ferrari, after spending more than a decade with the Silver Arrows. The next season looks to be promising for the Italian team, and Lewis Hamilton has also regained his form back just at the right time.
Former F1 boss Eddie Jordan also believes that the timing for Hamilton’s new stint in red is perfect, and that Ferrari are going to be one of the teams to look out for next year.
“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. 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,” said the Irishman.
“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?” the 76-year-old added.
Lewis Hamilton is currently tied with another icon of the F1, Michael Schumacher, at seven world titles, and breaking the record in his first season at Maranello would be the ideal dream come true. Meanwhile, Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff wanted Max Verstappen to replace the Briton, but with that not happening in the near future, he went with the low cost and time saving option of talented prospect Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Although, Jordan seems to be having major doubts regarding the German team’s move.
“I still believe that there’s a place for Kimi, but it’s not in Mercedes” : Eddie Jordan wants Mercedes to take their time with Kimi Antonelli
Pressure would be an understatement for 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli to replace the greatest F1 driver of all time, and it definitely showed when the Italian binned it inside ten minutes of his first official F1 session, that too at home. Many important individuals have claimed that Toto Wolff should have waited for at least another year to bring on the youngster into the main scene, and Jordan cited out the same opinion.
“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,” explained the Irish businessman.
Behind the scenes, this controversy might look different; but outside, all of this seems like one big experiment that the Mercedes CEO is hoping for to succeed. After all, time will tell whether or not the young Italian can live up to the hype.
