Former F1 team principal Eddie Jordan highlighted Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc among the ‘losers’ column when discussing his winners and losers from the British Grand Prix at the weekend.
Verstappen took his Red Bull to second place behind the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton on Sunday, after qualifying fourth with a heavily damaged floor on Saturday, running wide at Copse and losing a significant amount of downforce from his car.
Max Verstappen took second place at the British Grand Prix.
Eddie Jordan explains why Max Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez are among Silverstone ‘losers’
Verstappen had been running third behind the Mercedes duo in the early stages at Silverstone, but on hard tyres towards the end later moved past the chasing McLaren of Lando Norris after the final round of stops to put himself behind Hamilton on the road.
There was not enough time for the World Championship leader to mount a challenge for race victory, but former eponymous team principal Jordan put him among the ‘losers’ column for the reason of his car not being up to scratch – praising how well he went about his drive during the race.
Having listed the likes of Mercedes and Nico Hulkenberg among his ‘winners’ from the weekend, Jordan moved onto the topic of who did not come out of Silverstone on the right side of the results.
He reserved praise for the reigning World Champion for his fighting spirit to finish second, but did not believe he would be able to overhaul Hamilton come the end of the race.
“The situation in terms of the losers, Checo is such a massive disappointment. I just don’t know what’s going on there, and indeed, Charles Leclerc, having won and been the darling of everybody in Monaco,” Jordan explained on the Formula For Success podcast.
“Royalty, everyone was bowing to his greatness, and that was a great race to win. But nevertheless, you’ve got to capitalise on those race wins and make sure that you build on it. Otherwise, the foundation has gone.
“And I’m struggling to find out why or where has that speed gone that he showed so clearly in Monaco and another races in the past. So we need to watch that and, in hindsight, we have a potential World Champion this year in Max Verstappen.
“Truthfully, if we analyse carefully, his car was not good enough in qualifying, qualifying fourth.
“We know he had the problem with the floor, they did their best to fix it, and it was always going to be a battle in the race.
“And do I think that he could have passed Lewis? Truthfully? I don’t think so. I think Lewis had that in hand.
“You know, the crowd, the euphoria, everything about the British Grand Prix that Lewis stands for, I don’t think Max would have been able to pass him. But the facts are that it was a brilliant, brilliant race.”