Lewis Hamilton urged to leave Mercedes for greener pastures
- Oscar Sanders
- 13 May 2023
Ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan said the time has come for Lewis Hamilton to repeat his McLaren exit and leave Mercedes for fresh surroundings.
Ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan believes Lewis Hamilton needs a new challenge and should leave Mercedes to start afresh elsewhere.
Hamilton's decision to leave McLaren at the end of 2012 and sign for Mercedes has ultimately proven to be a masterstroke from the Brit, who with Mercedes has added six further World Championship crowns to his maiden 2008 title, putting him level with Michael Schumacher's record of seven overall.
The records for most race wins, podiums and pole positions among others do though belong exclusively to Hamilton.
Claiming that record-breaking eighth crown though is proving to be quite the obstacle to overcome for Hamilton, F1 2023 marking the second campaign in succession where Mercedes seemingly do not have a challenger capable of putting Hamilton into the title hunt.
In fairness, that right now is the case for any team not named Red Bull, but Jordan thinks the time has come for Hamilton, who is yet to sign fresh terms with Mercedes beyond 2023, to take the plunge again and "reinvent" himself away from Mercedes.
"My only concern is that Lewis has to find something else in his mojo now and he needs to get out of there," said Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast.
"He needs to move on just like he did when he was with McLaren. Get out of Mercedes, Lewis. It's time you reinvented yourself somewhere else."
Currently all signs point towards Hamilton extending his Mercedes stay, but whenever he does decide to call time on his Formula 1 career, it seems the team already has their future star in the form of George Russell.
Having began his F1 career with three seasons at Williams, all while remaining under the Mercedes junior banner, Russell has impressed since making that step up in time for the 2022 campaign, and currently boasts a 4-1 F1 2023 qualifying record against Hamilton.
Jordan admits that Russell is proving him wrong in Mercedes colours as he continues to hold his own alongside Hamilton.
"I got it wrong with George," said Jordan.
"I saw him in the Williams and I thought, 'are they really going to sign him? Is that really what's going to happen?'
"He absolutely blew me away. He did. And full marks, hands up, I got that wrong.
"I never thought he would do what he's doing, and I never thought that he would be beating Lewis."
Hamilton does hold the points advantage over Russell in the F1 2023 Drivers' standings after five rounds, with 56 points on the board to Russell's 40.
