Ferrari president John Elkann made an extraordinary comment about the F1 team’s drivers.
Ferrari president John Elkann took a sensational swipe at Formula 1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after a disastrous Sao Paulo Grand Prix, telling them to “talk less and focus on driving”. They both failed to score a single point in Sunday’s race, retiring from damage picked up in separate incidents.
On the same day, Ferrari‘s World Endurance Championship outfit sealed the title at the Eight Hours of Bahrain. The trio of Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi, former Sauber F1 racer Antonio Giovinazzi and Britain’s James Calado finished fourth in the Gulf state to ensure the drivers’ title would be theirs, while Ferrari finished 74 points clear at the top of the manufacturers’ standings.
Things have been much tougher going in F1 this year, however, particularly for Hamilton who has struggled to settle into his new surroundings. It’s clear, though, that Scuderia Ferrari’s issues run deep, evidenced by Leclerc’s failure to win a Grand Prix this year despite making few mistakes.
But Elkann, who was in Bahrain rather than Brazil, pointed his finger at the drivers for Ferrari’s failure to compete this year. The Italian said: “We won the WEC title – when Ferrari is united, you get results. [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.”
Ferrari sit fourth in the constructors’ standings with three rounds to go, having slipped behind Mercedes and Red Bull in recent weeks, and are the only one of the top four teams not to win a Grand Prix in 2025.
Hamilton, who had qualified only 13th in Sao Paulo before eventually retiring from the Grand Prix with damage, said glumly after the race: “This is a nightmare and I’ve been living it for a while. To flip between the dream of driving for this amazing team and the nightmare of the results we’ve had, the ups and downs, it’s challenging.
“Tomorrow, I’ll get back up, I’ll keep training and working with the team. I really wanted to get into the points this weekend, but I’ll come back as strong as I can in the next race and try to recover it.”
