Combined with the season\u2019s sky-high expectations following last year\u2019s narrow constructors title defeat, the atmosphere at the Scuderia is apparently tense.<\/p>\n
Now Ferrari chairman John Elkann has lit the fuse.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763321169_134_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Italian media last week, the heir of the Italian dynastic Agnelli family appeared to make clear where he felt the faults at Ferrari lay.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrazil was a huge disappointment,\u201d he said, reflecting on the team\u2019s third non-scoring grand prix of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look at the Formula 1 championship, we can say that our mechanics are winning the championship with their performance and everything they\u2019ve done on the pit stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look at our engineers, there\u2019s no doubt that the car has improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look at the rest, it\u2019s not up to par.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly have drivers for whom it\u2019s important to focus on driving and talk less, because we still have important races ahead of us, and it\u2019s not impossible to get second place [in the constructors championship].\u201d<\/p>\n
It came off as a brutal smackdown of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Leclerc, for so long the centre of Ferrari\u2019s Formula 1 program, has sounded increasingly despondent this season about his prospects of ever winning with the Italian team as it rolls down the title table. He\u2019s returned just seven podiums this season, only two of which were second place.<\/p>\n
Hamilton described his first season at Ferrari as a \u201cnightmare\u201d after retiring from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix with a damaged car. Though he\u2019s undoubtedly failed to meet performance expectations this season, the Briton\u2019s victory in the Shanghai sprint remains the team\u2019s only win of any description this year.<\/p>\n
In a final devastating flourish, Elkann compared Ferrari\u2019s fortunes in Formula 1 to its recently revived endurance racing program.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win both as a constructor and as drivers [in the World Endurance Championship] is a beautiful demonstration that when Ferrari is united, when everyone is together, you can achieve great things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ferrari is united, results are achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrari has reportedly defended Elkann\u2019s commentary as being \u201cconstructive\u201d and an effort to motivate the team.<\/p>\n
If he was looking for a reaction, he got one, though perhaps not in the way he expected.<\/p>\n
Leclerc posted on social media that \u201conly unity can help us turn that situation around in the last three races,\u201d appearing to deliberately use similar language to his boss.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s message seemed ever more pointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI back my team. I back myself. I will not give up. Not now, not then, not ever,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Fostering unity is the defining challenge at Ferrari, the most under-pressure team in Formula 1, but Elkann\u2019s intervention will intensify the spotlight on his struggling team over the final three races.<\/p>\n
Whether it was worthwhile depends on whether you see any truth to his arguments.<\/p>\n
PIT TALK: Lando Norris has taken a commanding 24-point championship lead after dominating the race weekend in Brazil, but the blow to Oscar Piastri\u2019s title hopes was partially inflicted by the stewards, who slapped him with a controversial 10-second penalty. Was the infringement a fair cop or over the top?<\/p>\n
STICK TO DRIVING<\/p>\n
Racing for Ferrari isn\u2019t like racing for other teams. No individual is bigger than any F1 team, but in Maranello the team is definitely bigger than the driver.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been an unwritten rule for practically as long as Ferrari has competed: the team and its car aren\u2019t up for criticism.<\/p>\n
Consider in 1991 that Alain Prost was sacked with a race to run after likening his Ferrari\u2019s handling characteristics to that of a truck.<\/p>\n
That comment was only part of the reason he was dismissed, with politics behind the scenes sealing the deal, but the fact it was good cover illustrates that drivers at Ferrari are expected to conduct themselves in a certain way.<\/p>\n
More recently consider the example of Sebastian Vettel, whose six-year stint at Ferrari started as a dream but ended in a nightmare.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a pivotal moment in the Vettel-Ferrari relationship, consider the 2016 season.<\/p>\n
Despite starting the campaign with multiple podiums \u2014 albeit a long way behind the all-conquering Mercedes team \u2014 Ferrari lost its form through the season, which ended as its second winless campaign in almost a quarter of century.<\/p>\n
Vettel had arrived at Ferrari as a four-time champion and heralded as the driver to win the team\u2019s first title of any description since 2008. He arrived from Red Bull Racing, which had dominated the first four years of the decade and was the only one to beat Mercedes in 2016.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly he attempted to mould Ferrari into what he knew was title-winning shape.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t go down well with management.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has to earn their position and salary,\u201d then principal Maurizio Arrivabene said pointedly at the time. \u201cSebastian just needs to focus on the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Stick to driving\u2019 seemed to be the message. \u2018We know what we\u2019re doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
Vettel was an outside title contender in 2017 and 2018, but the arrival of Leclerc in 2019 signalled the end of the German\u2019s Ferrari career, and he left at the end of 2020.<\/p>\n
Ferrari\u2019s title drought has continued.<\/p>\n
Mostert fastest of finalists in P1 & 2 | 01:21<\/p>\n
IS HAMILTON DOOMED TO VETTEL\u2019S FATE?<\/p>\n
Vettel\u2019s story offers a fascinating parallel at the end of a year in which Hamilton\u2019s struggles have been a major talking point.<\/p>\n
Part of his underperformance has been his transition to working in the Ferrari way.<\/p>\n
Hamilton has rarely publicly criticised the team, instead shouldering his blame \u2014 fairly enough \u2014 for often not being at Leclerc\u2019s level.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean he hasn\u2019t been taking notes on the team\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n
After the mid-season break Hamilton revealed that he\u2019d been preparing and sending the team documents about changes he felt needed to be made to get Maranello into title-winning shape and to help him get the best from himself.<\/p>\n
His notes went to structural issues as well as problems with the car.<\/p>\n
This is entirely unsurprising.<\/p>\n
Ferrari didn\u2019t shell out for Hamilton just for fun. He brings with him a decade of experience racing for Mercedes, where he broke the records set by Ferrari and Michael Schumacher for domination over time.<\/p>\n
Incorporating that experience is what can turn Ferrari, a perennial underachiever given its mighty resources and infrastructure, back into a winner.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same reason any team poaches anyone from the pointy end of the grid.<\/p>\n
But according to ESPN, Hamilton\u2019s feedback has received a cool reaction. While some have welcomed his perspective, others have apparently resented his input.<\/p>\n
It sounds alarmingly familiar.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more interesting has been that Leclerc appears to have been caught up in the executive-level smackdown.<\/p>\n
Leclerc is a Ferrari academy product long dubbed in Italy as il predestinato \u2014 the predestined one. It took him only one year at the Scuderia to displace Vettel as the team\u2019s lead driver, and Ferrari has been built around him ever since.<\/p>\n
His rarely wavered from winning with Ferrari being his lifelong dream and sole objective.<\/p>\n
But this year he\u2019s been more willing to criticise publicly. His disappointment has been more obvious. He hasn\u2019t felt obliged to dress up the team\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understandable after the team ended 2024 with the quickest car and came within 14 points of the constructors title. Expectations were that it would be a leader this year. Instead it\u2019s a distant fourth in the standings and still searching for a first win of the year.<\/p>\n
Leclerc has since sounded a warning about the team\u2019s preparedness for 2026, noting that if Ferrari can\u2019t hit the ground running under next year\u2019s new rules, it\u2019ll likely take several more years to reach competitiveness.<\/p>\n
Leclerc holds a long-term contract, though it would certainly have performance-related exit clauses, and this year\u2019s he\u2019s been forced to deflect persistent rumours that his management is scoping the field.<\/p>\n
At 28 years old and entering what\u2019s conventionally considered the prime of a driver\u2019s career, he\u2019d be silly not to at least consider the difficult question of leaving the team.<\/p>\n
Loyalty is a two-way street, but perhaps Ferrari sees commentary even from its golden son as too inconvenient a truth.<\/p>\n
Piastri’s title challenge laid bare | 01:22<\/p>\n
BUT HAS THE CAR BEEN ANY GOOD?<\/p>\n
Of course Ferrari\u2019s hard line on criticism wouldn\u2019t be an issue if the car was competitive in the first place, as Elkann appeared to suggest.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s hard to tally his assessment with reality.<\/p>\n
The chairman noted the team\u2019s improved pit stop performance straight off the bat, and certainly it\u2019s true that its consistency in the lane has improved.<\/p>\n
Ferrari has completed the fastest pit stop at nine races so far this year, more than any other team, albeit the fastest overall stop belongs to McLaren.<\/p>\n
While positive, it\u2019s of limited value when the team doesn\u2019t have the car speed to convert those quick stops into big results.<\/p>\n
Elkann argued that there\u2019s \u201cno doubt\u201d the car has improved, but the data doesn\u2019t back that up.<\/p>\n
Comparing every team\u2019s fastest lap of the weekend to the overall fastest shows Ferrari is comfortably the slowest car among the frontrunners.<\/p>\n
Gap to fastest, frontrunners<\/p>\n
1. McLaren: +0.054 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Red Bull Racing: +0.264 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Mercedes: +0.367 seconds<\/p>\n
4. Ferrari: +0.442 seconds<\/p>\n
It\u2019s yet to end a weekend with the fastest single lap \u2014 including in Hungary, where Leclerc\u2019s pole effort came as track conditions slowed in Q3; he\u2019d been comfortably beaten by McLaren in the faster Q2 session.<\/p>\n
Approximating development, to go directly to Elkann\u2019s point, demonstrates the bare minimum improvement at best.<\/p>\n
We can calculate the development rate by drawing a trend line through each team\u2019s gap to the fastest single lap over the course of the season.<\/p>\n
Development rate, frontrunners<\/p>\n
1. Ferrari: improved by 0.001 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Red Bull Racing: degraded by 0.031 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Mercedes: degraded by 0.067 seconds<\/p>\n
4. McLaren: degraded by 0.109 seconds<\/p>\n
All this shows, though, is that Ferrari has effectively stood still in the battle for pole. Red Bull Racing, Mercedes and McLaren\u2019s number have fluctuated as they\u2019ve found themselves in a three-way battle for pole.<\/p>\n
Ferrari\u2019s best weekends have seen to it compete for podiums but never wins. Its worst have seen it beaten by teams that belong in the midfield.<\/p>\n
To strike out at the drivers as being the chief problem for being insufficiently focused on driving their slow car is a tremendous example of misdirection.<\/p>\n
Elkann\u2019s final point, though, might be most interesting.<\/p>\n
He rightly praises the brand\u2019s World Endurance Championship success, with Ferrari\u2019s entry winning both the drivers and the constructors titles just three years since returning to the top class.<\/p>\n
Of course while Ferrari designed its WEC-winning car, its factory entry is operated by AF Corse, fundamentally different to its entirely in-house F1 team.<\/p>\n
WEC also uses balance of performance to ensure the different cars in the hypercar class are evenly matched. You can think of BOP like a handicap, adjusting weight and power output to ensure all the cars are roughly equal.<\/p>\n
Teams are contractually obliged not to criticise the BOP system, even as it\u2019s adjusted from round to round, but The Race has reported that wild performance swings have caused tensions to simmer over the last two years. The sport is mulling over changing the rules for next season.<\/p>\n
Elkann arguing that the difference between his F1 and sports car operations is simply teamwork, then, is shallow at best and deliberately misleading at worst.<\/p>\n
WEC has regulatory interest in levelling the playing field between the top teams. Formula 1 is as open as it gets. Ferrari has done well in one but poorly in the other. You can connect the dots for yourself at home.<\/p>\n
Perhaps disunity inside the Formula 1 team is an issue, but coming in over the top and singling out the drivers will do nothing to improve the situation.<\/p>\n
All Elkann has done is turn Ferrari into a talking point for all the wrong reasons, repeating the decades-old mistake of executives suffocating the team with useless, suffocating pressure that inevitably leads to collapse.<\/p>\n
The question is whether there\u2019s time to change course before the killing season commences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s always killing season at Ferrari. Formula 1\u2019s most successful team is also its most violent. No team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12023,2620,40760,2095,1724,64,63,166743,11308,24562,166742,166725,43366,13275,99543,166739,512,2055,59961,166738,16210,166731,16189,9239,11301,2057,817,166723,166726,166740,166747,813,816,166737,22496,166727,939,166749,166736,18897,2101,2328,2097,137990,166733,844,13756,166732,90124,166745,166746,166734,166724,166729,88575,2119,166741,51043,21786,851,4933,133571,11298,3595,85,166735,18394,166748,52697,82833,31303,43367,166728,24584,49572,166744,166730],"class_list":["post-289485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-academy-product","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-alain-prost","tag-america","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bare-minimum-improvement","tag-brazil","tag-british-driver","tag-car-operations","tag-car-speed","tag-championship-position","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-chaz-mostert","tag-chief-problem","tag-china","tag-constructors-championship","tag-constructors-title","tag-constructors-title-defeat","tag-constructors-titles","tag-defining-challenge","tag-development-rate","tag-eastern-asia","tag-eastern-europe","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-factory-entry","tag-fallen-giant","tag-ferrari-academy","tag-final-point","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fostering-unity","tag-four-time-champion","tag-handling-characteristics","tag-hungary","tag-hypercar-class","tag-italian-giant","tag-italian-media","tag-italian-team","tag-italy","tag-john-elkann","tag-lead-driver","tag-maurizio-arrivabene","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-mid-season-break","tag-multiple-podiums","tag-non-scoring-grand-prix","tag-painful-truth","tag-perennial-underachiever","tag-performance-expectations","tag-performance-swings","tag-performance-related-exit-clauses","tag-pit-stops","tag-pit-talk","tag-pole-effort","tag-pre-season-testing","tag-race-weekend","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-shanghai","tag-single-lap","tag-south-america","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-stunning-smackdown","tag-talking-point","tag-team-documents","tag-title-challenge","tag-title-drought","tag-title-hopes","tag-title-table","tag-title-crippling-penalty","tag-track-conditions","tag-trend-line","tag-under-pressure-team","tag-winless-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}