F1 pundit and former team manager Eddie Jordan has labelled Ferrari’s decision to replace Carlos Sainz with Lewis Hamilton as ‘absolutely suicidal’ following the Spaniard’s best season to date in 2024.
Sainz found himself in a difficult position throughout the 2024 campaign.
His fate was sealed before a wheel was turned, and after missing out on moves to Red Bull and Mercedes, the 30-year-old was aware that his days as a driver for a frontrunning team were numbered.
Despite his impending departure, Sainz performed at an impressive level. He scored multiple Grand Prix victories for the first time in his F1 career, recording wins in Melbourne and Mexico City, and finished just two points behind fourth-placed Oscar Piastri in the standings, despite missing a race due to appendicitis.
Hamilton, meanwhile, endured one of the toughest seasons of his glittering career.
Despite winning two races of his own, the Brit struggled against George Russell in the qualifying head-to-head, losing 19-5, and ended the year seventh in the Drivers’ Championship for the first time.
According to Jordan, Fred Vasseur and John Elkann will regret their decision to drop Sainz in favour of Hamilton.
In an end-of-season awards segment of his Formula For Success podcast with David Coulthard, the 76-year-old nominated it as his shock F1 moment of 2024.
Jordan said:
“We’re on the same page here, because my FFS is, I say to John Elkann, who’s the chairman of that group, what the f**k was he thinking about in getting rid of Carlos, when he had a very happy, friendly, structured team that knew how to work together.
“The drivers [Sainz and Charles Leclerc] got on well together. Fred Vasseur had a real opportunity to bring this team great, great success.
Now he has to start thinking about gelling and mending away, that he can get a new member of the team, egos, everything involved.
“Lewis is a particularly nice person. I’m not sure there’s many nicer people on the grid than Lewis Hamilton, so I don’t think he’ll have a problem there.
However, my FFS goes to John Elkann of Ferrari for even authorising, signing off on that deal. It was absolutely suicidal to get rid of Carlos.”
Coulthard had previously nominated the same point for his award. “It’s the FFS moment, the ‘for f**k’s sake moment of the year’,” the former Red Bull star said.
“So, for me, I think the FFS moment of the year was Lewis signing to Ferrari. I just never saw that coming. What was your FFS moment of the year?”
