McLaren IndyCar team principal Tony Kanaan doesn’t believe that John Elkann has ‘awareness of the real issue’ at Ferrari. The Italian manufacturer’s president made a wild public statement criticising drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Last weekend’s race in Sao Paulo was an unmitigated disaster for Ferrari, who watched on as both Hamilton and Leclerc were forced to retire with damage. This means that, heading into the final three races of the season, the Scuderia sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
With his team on the slide and the pressure ramping up, Elkann gave a bold public interview, in which he praised the Ferrari World Endurance Championship squad for locking down both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships, and called out his F1 stars.
“We won the WEC title – when Ferrari is united, you get results,” Elkann said. “[But] Brazil was a huge disappointment. If we look at the Formula 1 championship, we can say that our mechanics are winning the championship with their performance and everything they’ve done on the pit stops.
“If we look at our engineers, there’s no doubt that the car has improved. If we look at the rest, it’s not up to par. And we certainly have drivers for whom it’s important that they focus on driving and talk less.”
These comments attracted widespread attention, and both Hamilton and Leclerc made passionate Instagram posts in the hours that followed, albeit without directly addressing Elkann’s pointed criticism.
“Ferrari is always going to be Ferrari; you’re never going to be bigger than Ferrari,” Kanaan said, giving his verdict on the Drive to Wynn podcast. “Look at [Fernando] Alonso, [Sebastian] Vettel, and Rubens [Barrichello].
“I mean, I lived that with Rubens. It’s such a… The culture there, it’s Ferrari. They’re going to protect it, and you’re never going to be bigger than them. So no matter what, people are going to tell you what to do.
“The respect needs to be more of you towards Ferrari than actually Ferrari towards you. Unless you’re Michael Schumacher. That’s what’s happening there. The drivers are getting frustrated because they need to be vocal about it.
“These people don’t want to talk about it because that’s not what they do. Then obviously, it takes a toll on the drivers and all of a sudden then the guy comes out of Brazil with, ‘They should talk less because they will do better.’ That tells you how little the guy has of an awareness of what the real issue is.”
