Eddie Jordan has urged Charles Leclerc to take advantage of his Ferrari knowledge to assert himself over Lewis Hamilton early doors.

Seven-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will partner the highly-rated Charles Leclerc at Ferrari this year, as the British driver aims to claim a record eighth World Dhampionship title.

Eddie Jordan gives Charles Leclerc the hurry-up

Hamilton was snapped up by Ferrari when he approached the Scuderia to signal his availability despite having signed a short-term contract renewal with Mercedes during 2023. The proposition of matching the sport’s most successful driver with the sport’s most historical and successful team was too good to pass up, leading Ferrari to pass up on renewing Carlos Sainz and sign Hamilton alongside Leclerc.

Hamilton is chasing a record-breaking eighth World title, having been sat on seven titles since 2020 as Max Verstappen rose to the top of Formula 1 with Red Bull the following season, but one man who will stand in Hamilton’s way is now his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc may be highly rated and regarded as one of the quickest drivers on the grid, but the Monegasque is yet to come near the levels of success Hamilton has achieved – offering a thrilling dynamic heading into the F1 2025 season.

With eight Grand Prix wins to his name, his best championship result in second in 2022 – compared to Hamilton’s 105 Grand Prix wins and seven titles, Leclerc pales into insignificance.

But Leclerc can’t be seen as the lesser driver at this point and will be a hugely formidable challenge for Hamilton to overcome. Not only is Leclerc viewed as a ‘champion-in-waiting’ by many fans and observers, he has been a part of Ferrari’s F1 team for seven years having been brought up through the junior ranks as an Academy driver.

Leclerc is thus very much a product of Ferrari and is beloved within the organisation. The challenge for him will thus be to ensure that Hamilton doesn’t arrive and immediately assume a leadership position in the team that will reduce Leclerc’s prospects, and former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan said the Monegasque must use his momentum with Ferrari to establish some early ground over Hamilton.

“Leclerc is there now seven years. He knows everybody,” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast.

“He knows all the people and what to say, the language. He’s the darling of Maranello.

“However, he will be surprised. I think he had a certain way with him over Carlos Sainz.

“But, as far as I’m concerned, I think Lewis will hit the ground running… well, I think it will take him two or three races.

“I would urge Leclerc to get on his bike in the early stage because that’s when Leclerc is going to show certain amounts of dominance.”

It’s as Hamilton becomes increasingly comfortable at Ferrari that the danger to Leclerc’s position as being built around him may build.

“As the season unfolds, as the people show more and more and more love for [Lewis],” Jordan said, “particularly the Italian fraternity and the Tifosi, but also the country, because this is a national team – I really think Lewis wants to and will embrace the love that it projects.”

The intriguing question heading into the F1 2025 season is whether or not Hamilton will rise to the occasion against Leclerc. The British driver looked ill at ease at Mercedes in his final season at Brackley, with his 13-year tenure coming to an end coming off second-best to George Russell – particularly when it came to Saturday qualifying results.

Hamilton never appeared particularly comfortable in the Mercedes W15, and Jordan said it was striking that Hamilton never achieved the same level of confidence in the car as his younger teammate.

“At the end of the day, George Russell grabbed that car by the horns, and he made it do different things to what Lewis was,” he said.

“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] and to Bono [race engineer Pete Bonnington] that there was something seriously wrong with the back of the car, that he 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 is a big future.

“We’re desperately keen to see how he gets on this year.”

With F1 2025 representing a make-or-break year for Leclerc, his teammate of recent years Carlos Sainz said he understood immediately why it was him, and not Leclerc, who would be dropped in order to fit Hamilton in at the Scuderia.

“I understand it was never going to be Charles,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“Charles has been the project of Ferrari ever since he’s been a junior driver. He’s been the centre of the project for many years.”