Jordan: “Leclerc is Max's challenger. Hamilton and Alonso are too old”

Red Bull in a separate world championship?

In 2023, Formula 1 saw a two-speed championship. On the one hand the Red Bull chasing record after record, capable of winning all but one race. On the other hand, the remaining 9 teams are competing for crumbs, but capable of giving rise to interesting upheavals in the balance of power compared to the start of the season.

For next season everyone – except Red Bull – hopes for a closer world championship also for the fight for the top, at least to break the clear dominance of the Anglo-Austrian team and guarantee less predictable results and, therefore, less boredom for the spectators.

Eddie Jordan's predictions

Jordan he was an iconic character of F1 between the 90s and the early 2000s. The Irish manager skilfully managed to carve out a prominent place for himself on the starting grid, winning 4 GPs out of 250 contested and being able to boast of having launched Michael Schumacher. Precisely from here he starts in the interview granted to the Germans of F1-Insider: “Already after the first tests at Silverstone, it was clear that Michael would be Ayrton Senna's challenger. It was so fast that we thought the stopwatch was broken. I also worked with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, a natural talent, for me the most underrated F1 driver ever.”

Eddie Jordan then reviewed the current Formula 1 drivers: “For me Max Verstappen is a mix between Senna and Schumacher. For him I see only one challenger, namely Charles Leclerc. Ferrari must give him a car at the level of Red Bull, otherwise there will be no excitement“. And he concluded: “If I had a top team and couldn't sign Max, there would only be 2 drivers capable of facing Verstappen: one is Leclerc, the other is Lando Norris. Simplyand I don't think that Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, although great champions, would be able to keep up with Verstappen, due to their age“.