{"id":369910,"date":"2025-12-25T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369910\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:46:11","slug":"elkann-has-about-as-much-f1-expertise-as-i-have-in-economics-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369910\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Elkann has about as much F1 expertise as I have in economics, none’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Michael Schumacher race engineer Luigi Mazzola did not hold back in his criticism of Ferrari<\/a> chairman John Elkann.\u201cElkann has about as much Formula 1 expertise as I have in economics \u2014 basically none, honestly very little\u201d- Luigi Mazzola<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of Ferrari\u2019s disastrous Brazilian Grand Prix \u2014 which ended in a double DNF \u2014 Elkann sparked plenty of debate with some pointed remarks aimed at his drivers, urging them to \u201ctalk less and focus on driving more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to those remarks in a conversation with NewsF1, Luigi Mazzola felt the comments could have been avoided: \u201cDirty laundry should be washed at home \u2014 it\u2019s obvious. When you say something like that publicly, politically speaking you\u2019re already taking a shot at someone. Usually, when you do things like this, it\u2019s because you\u2019re targeting someone in order to shape what happens next.<\/p>\n

Mazzola believes Elkann missed a golden opportunity to celebrate Ferrari\u2019s double triumph in the WEC, instead choosing to make comments that were out of place \u2014 while drawing a pointed and telling comparison in the process.<\/p>\n

\"elkann-and-hamilton\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: RacePictures.<\/p>\n

\u201cElkann has about as much Formula 1<\/a> expertise as I have in economics \u2014 basically none, honestly very little. He came out with that line at a moment when he could have scored some big points by celebrating the WEC success: you\u2019re there, you\u2019ve won the drivers\u2019 title, the constructors\u2019 title \u2014 why go and talk about Formula 1 at all?<\/p>\n

\u201cThose words may not even have come directly from him \u2014 they were probably suggested to him. Certain figures are clearly fed specific lines. Of course it doesn\u2019t do the team any good, but it\u2019s also true that he\u2019s no Montezemolo. He\u2019s not someone whose words can really have that much influence. That\u2019s how I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc faces sharp criticism from ex-Ferrari driverThe former Italian driver, best known for helping Niki Lauda escape the fireball after his horrific N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife crash in 1976, did not mince his words when it came to Charles Leclerc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arturo Merzario argued that \u201cLeclerc ended up occupying a seat at Ferrari that, at the time, he simply didn\u2019t deserve,\u201d before adding that \u201che\u2019s a very good driver, like many others,\u201d and insisting that \u201che\u2019s not special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read his full comments here.<\/a>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Michael Schumacher race engineer Luigi Mazzola did not hold back in his criticism of Ferrari chairman John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13275,817,35119,826,813,816,823,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-369910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-charles-leclerc","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-lewis-hamilton","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369910","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=369910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}