I argued passionately for Lewis Hamilton to take his illustrious career to Maranello, to join Ferrari, a once prestigious racing organization whose fans are hungry for its past glory days. I did so with the belief that Mr. Hamilton, along with Leclerc has what it takes to deliver race wins, to deliver championships and bring this organization back to F1 relevance.
While my conviction is being fully tested, I still believe in that dream. As a matter of fact, the inspired driving of Mr. Hamilton since he has been back from the break leaves me cautiously optimistic that the best of his Ferrari days is yet to come, but to realize that possibility, to unlock the potential that is clearly there, we need you, Mr. Elkann to act decisively. You sir, need to burn the village to save the village!!!
It is time for you to evaluate your racing team up and down the entire pit wall and at the end of that evaluation, I am confident that you will learn what your entire fan base already knows, except for the two drivers, you need to make drastic changes up and down that pit wall and demand excellence from the people you hired to run an efficient, what should be a world class racing program. Right now, it is anything but……
Your two drivers are starving for better leadership, improved engineering performance, better and more decisive decision making, improved communication, more precise and impactful strategy calls. With that in mind, nobody not driving the car on race day should be immune ~ Everybody must be carefully evaluated and major operational changes made to drive future successes!!
“To achieve greatness, we need to go further, be better. There is so much we can achieve together, and if we can build on our successes, and change the thing we need to, I fully believe we will get there.” — these are the words of your prize fighter, the most successful wheelman in formula one history, Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Mr. Elkann, that is your clarion call to act decisively.
It starts with Fred Vasseur who we had high hopes for. He does not look like a man in command of his team, and he has not made things better. As a matter of fact, the decision making across the board has been worse than those of Binotto, at times comical if it were not so impactful to race day outcomes. The same applies to everyone below him ~ Everyone must be carefully evaluated; changes must be made and excellence demanded!!
Your drivers are being woefully underserved by the current players charged to give them the very best opportunity to succeed on race weekends. Instead, they have found new and innovative ways to make sure the drivers are left with no opportunities to compete for race wins and podiums consistently each race weekend. It is sad when one can credibly make the argument that the team principal’s fecklessness and the ineptitude of the people around him have been the competitions best weapon against your iconic team and their drivers.
John, believe the evidence of your eyes and ears. It is time for changes to support your drivers and at least give them a fighting chance. It is time for you to act.
