Italy stunned by Ferrari insider castigating Elkann – The post Sau Paulo statement issued by Ferrari chairman, John Elkann, sent a thunderclap over the iconic sportscar brand in Maranello and then around the world of motorsport.
Having upraised the Scuderia engineers and mechanics, Elkann proceeded to attack Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. “The rest is not up to par,” said the Ferrari chairman. “We have drivers who need to focus on driving, talk less…” We need drivers who think more about Ferrari and less about themselves was the blunt message.
Lewis Hamilton never one to not speak posted his defiant response within the hour. “I back my team. I back myself. I will not give up. Not now, not then, not ever. Thank you, Brazil, always,” the seven-time world champion posted on Instagram. The message was clear, Lewis will not be cowed into submission.
Ferrari drivers respond to criticism
Charles Leclerc was the first to post and his message contained a more diplomatic tone echoing Elkann’s call for togertherness. “A very difficult weekend in Sao Paulo,” he wrote on X.
“Disappointing to come back home with nearly no points at all for the team in what is a critical moment of the season to fight for the second place in the constructors’ championship. It’s uphill from now and it’s clear that only unity can help us turn that situation around in the last three races. We’ll give it all, as always.”
Whether the Elkann comments were intended to be motivational is unclear as is the incident which gave rise to Jim feeling he needed to vent in such a public fashion. There have been a number of voices who have criticised the Ferrari chairman’s intervention, with F1 car designer bluntly stating, “engage your brain before your mouth.”
Ferrari’s most successful era was under the leadership of Jean Todt along with Ross Brawn with Michael Schumacher eventually hitting the headlines with his dominant five years of championships. At that time, Todt and Brawn created a bubble around the team to protect them from interference from the Ferrari hierarchy.
The Ferrari media mouthpiece
Yet despite their eighteenth season since the team’s last title, the modern day Ferrari doesn’t seem to have learned lessons from the glory years. When Enzo was running the show, he would sometimes use a Turin based news, La Stampa, outlet to issue warnings or rollockings.
La Stampa is owned by the Agnelli family who have always been intertwined with the Ferrari family. The Agnelli family have been likened to the Kennedy’s in terms of the members prominence in national affairs.
Thus when La Stampa it is taken as read it comes with the authority of the Ferrari hierarchy and when Enzo was running the show it was assumed he had authorised every word and phrase. Yet the detachment from Enzo himself speaking his mind, meant that the impact was more measured than the kind of comments made this week from Elkann.
Leo Turini is a fabled Italian F1 journalist who worked for La Stampa and is one of the most well informed insiders within the Ferrari team. He predicted the shock return of Kimi Raikkonen to Maranello in poetic fashion and his call on the demise of Matteo Binotto was also spot on.
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Leo Turini lambasts Elkann
Yet the historic link between the Ferrari chairman appears to have been shattered, with Turini who holds almost oracle like status with the tifosi – blasting Elkann in a blog which has spread like wildfire in Italy.
“Would Montezemolo ever have spoken about Ferrari’s drivers the way John Elkann did today? Never a joy, really,” Turrini penned. “No sooner had I thanked John Elkann for bringing Ferrari back to world championship glory after 53 years in the WEC – and I did, for what it’s worth – than he delivered a statement bound to leave everyone stunned.”
What is even more remarkable is that Elkann is the chosen heir of his maternal grandmother Gianni Agnelli following the death of her nephew in 2004. For Turini to lay into the Ferrari chairman is almost unthinkable.
“Of course Ferrari’s mechanics are good,” continues Turini. “They always have been. But Maranello’s engineers and those leading them haven’t done their job if, after 21 races, Ferrari has zero wins and sits fourth in the standings. Fourth. Again. Hamilton has been a flop so far, yes, but what kind of car has he had? And Leclerc, damn it, has been waiting for a decent car since high school.”
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Ferrari record littered with talent destroyed
Then comes Turini’s devastating conclusion. “If the grandson of Gianni Agnelli really thinks Ferrari’s problem is talkative drivers, then, at the very least, he needs to change his advisers, his consultants, his managers. Because believe me – if since Schumacher and Räikkönen Ferrari hasn’t seen glory, it’s not Alonso’s fault, not Vettel’s, not Leclerc’s, and not Hamilton’s. And if that isn’t understood, then truly, we’ll never win again.”
This kind of extreme response from someone who is close to the power in Maranello, is surely echoed by others within the Ferrari echo chamber. Turini blasting Elkann suggests the Ferrari president got it spectacularly wrong, selecting the wrong targets in a rant that will achieve little – but sow more division.
As Turini notes, Ferrari last two decades has been littered with talent which has been destroyed, from Alonso to Vettel to Leclerc and now seven times champion Lewis Hamilton. Maranello retains a culture which repeatedly talks about unity but is riven with a blame culture.
The real culprits for Ferrari failure
History demonstrates that when Ferrari is expressing its divisions in such a public fashion, that the team rarely excels on track. There are culprits who turned the SF-24 which almost claimed the constructors championship into a “truck”, but that begins with the senior engineers and Fred masseur who decided this season to build a “completely new car.”
Meanwhile McLaren were honing their MCL38 into an even finer winning machine. The softly spoken Fred Vasseur gives the impression he is persistently mediating between one faction and another, the answer to Ferrari’s issues is for the F1 team to employ a dictator as a team boss, who will sack on sight anyone who expresses disunity.
Reports in Italy suggest Charles Leclerc has a pre-contract signed with another team, which could be announced after just ten or so races in 2026. He has stood by Ferrari through thick and thin and his loyalty has been rewarded with what has been a waste of some of his prime racing years.
The Elkann inspired volcano has just begun to erupt, and the repercussions will be seen for many weeks and months to come.
Elkann is plain wrong. Results have not “improved” – the facts…
John Elkann issued a withering attack on his Formula One Ferrari drivers the day after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The all powerful Ferrari Chairman claimed his drivers need to “focus more and talk less,” and that the car as “undoubtedly improved”, and the rest of the team, with the exception of the Maranello based engineers, is “not up to standard.”
Within hours both drivers had taken to social media with Lewis Hamilton pointedly observing, “I back my team, I back myself” and Leclerc somewhat playing teacher’s pet echoing the words of his big boss saying, ”it’s uphill from now and it’s clear only unity can help us”.
Sensational stuff and we will have to wait ten days or so to see the more detailed response of the race team together with that of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Yet the Italian media have been pointing the finger of accusation elsewhere this season, with team boss and senior engineers persistently coming under fire….. READ MORE
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