While Eddie Jordan had been one of the biggest critics of Ferrari dropping Carlos Sainz for Lewis Hamilton, now he believes it was the right choice.

Ahead of the F1 2024 campaign, Hamilton activated a release clause in his Mercedes contract to sign with Ferrari from F1 2025 under a multi-year deal, that forcing Sainz – who would win two grands prix with Ferrari in 2024 – to find a new home on the F1 grid, ultimately landing at Williams.

Eddie Jordan in Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari U-turn

It was a decision from Ferrari which did not sit well with former F1 team boss Jordan, who went as far as to say Ferrari chairman John Elkann “must have rocks in his head” to have authorised the deal, one which he had urged Ferrari to back out of after Hamilton in Qatar said “I’m definitely not fast anymore” after one of 19 qualifying defeats to then Mercedes team-mate George Russell in 2024.

However, with Hamilton taking his first steps into Ferrari life – including breaking the internet with his stylish first official photograph – Jordan now believes Ferrari have got it absolutely right in signing the “box office” seven-time World Champion, even if there was the “unfortunate” crash during Ferrari’s three-day Barcelona test with the SF-23 car.

“What I thought was unbelievably eye-catching, that photograph of Lewis Hamilton in that coat. It just depicts why I think Ferrari went for him. He’s box office, absolutely,” said Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast.

“And please check, I think you will find there’s close to six million likes about the way he looked, and his appearance. It’s a very stylish photograph. And it’ll be iconic. That photograph will be used for many, many, many, many years to come.

“It depends, of course, how he gets on, but at the same time, I think the photograph will be used.

“We hear recently about the crash, which is unfortunate, because I also saw the photograph of the many, many, many thousands of the tifosi that turned up to take photographs, wish him well, just on a little reconnaissance trip with the car, so you can imagine what it’s going to be like on grand prix day.

“I think he will be a huge draw. I think he’s not just box office for Formula 1, I think he’s box office everywhere, particularly in the Americas, in Asia, we know about Europe.

“I’m totally warm to the idea that Ferrari, for all sorts of reasons, particularly commercial, made the right decision.”

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However, Jordan’s podcast co-star, 13-time grand prix winner David Coulthard, would point out that “this isn’t a personality or a column inches World Championship. It’s a points World Championship.”

He added: “A lot of people [are] concerned about how his final year at Mercedes went.

“It can’t just be that he was feeling a little bit that: ‘This car doesn’t quite suit me, and my mind’s already taken a step off to Ferrari’. He’s a natural born winner.”

Jordan would instead look to heap the praise on Russell for his work at the wheel of the W15, while Hamilton, perhaps, is “not going to drive something that’s not up to his liking.”

Russell also outscored Hamilton across F1 2024, 245 points to 223.

“David, love what you say, very difficult to disagree with any of it, but at the end of the day, George Russell grabbed that car by the horns,” said Jordan, “and he made it do different things to what Lewis was.

“Now, Lewis is possibly… he’s been driving since he’s been five, seven or eight years of age, so he’s not going to drive something that’s not up to his liking.

“He made the point, I don’t know if you saw a very private recent interview with him, where he had said to Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] and to Bono [former race engineer Peter Bonnington] that there was something seriously wrong with the back of the car, that it wasn’t conveying confidence in the corner.

“He just didn’t feel that the car was giving him the confidence to push to the level that he needed to do to get pole positions and race wins.

“Having said that, George absolutely demolished him in qualifying, and to some extent in the races as well. So well done George Russell. He has a big future. We’re desperately keen to see how he gets on next year [2025].”

Russell becomes the experienced head at Mercedes for F1 2025 with 18-year-old Mercedes Junior Team graduate Andrea Kimi Antonelli named as Hamilton’s successor.

Hamilton meanwhile will find Charles Leclerc on the other side of the garage at Ferrari.

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