Ferrari Chairman, John Elkann could have been a bold, transformative figure for the once storied Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team now languishing in mediocrity under his leadership. On the day of our lord, November 11, 2025, he appears to have lost his mind and was anything but bold and far removed from anything remotely resembling transformative. He endorsed and supported ongoing failure in his organization.
Sharing what can only be described as a regrettable statement in Rome on Monday, Elkann said: “If we look at the season in F1, we can say we have mechanics who are winning the championship with the performances they’re putting in, particularly with everything they are doing in our pit stops.
“If we look at our engineers, the car has undoubtedly improved. If we look at the rest, it’s not up to standard.
“We have drivers who need to focus more and talk less, because we still have important races to come, and finishing second in the constructors isn’t impossible.”
The best I have is that someone must have pissed in his cornflakes when he woke up on Monday morning!!
With his tone-deaf, borderline asinine statement directed at his drivers and without question primarily at Lewis Hamilton, Elkann seems to be offering more of the same. A system firmly wedded to and only interested in protecting a top-down, insular corporate structure, riddled with a groupthink mentality that has only delivered repeated failures for the better part of 18 years.
It is a system that has left them incapable of quickly adapting to changes to Formula 1 regulations, a system that has only served to deliver repeated technical missteps, a system plagued with strategic errors that have only served to diminish their competitiveness on the big stage while their rivals have been nimble and able to adapt quickly.
Elkann does not need to search too hard to recognize that in 2020, this failed, insular system delivered a car that struggled mightily due to correlation errors between their simulation software and real-world performance. They had four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in the car and things got so bad that Vettel, with all his talent and experience simply mailed it in after trying and failing to effect changes, ultimately leading to a mutual decision that he would leave Ferrari at the end of the 2020 season. For contexts, a quality driver the likes of Vettel finished 13th in the driver standings that year. You do not need to look too far to see the idiocy of Elkann’s statement.
Fast forward to 2022 when the same failed, insular system with the same tired players delivered a car that was lacking in performance, while most teams were able to deliver more downforce, Ferrari struggled with a lack of consistency. You do not need to look too far to see the idiocy of Elkann’s statement.
Here we are winding down the 2025 season, and the SF-25 has been an abject failure.
There have been negative impacts of the design leading to issues including but not limited to reduced straight-line speed, braking issues, and terrible correlation of upgrades to actual on track performance. It has been so bad that a floor upgrade at the Spanish GP was removed as it negatively affected performance. Quite honestly the car should be called LICO. You do not need to look too far to see the idiocy of Elkann’s statement.
Exiting the 2024 season where they finished runners-up to McLaren by just 14 points, they are now 394 points behind this year’s constructors’ champions with three rounds remaining. This is the kind of failure Elkann seems to be defending when he talks about the team’s mechanics and engineers performing well. You do not need to look too far to see the idiocy of Elkann’s statement.
Elkann, in locking up the talented Charles Leclerc until 2029, and in a bold move signing Lewis Hamilton, the greatest F1 driver to ever grace the grid, appeared to be well on his way to dismantling a failed insular system that has seen them not win a driving championship since 2007 or a constructor championship since 2008, but his latest comments, protecting the people most responsible for the ongoing failures, people who have been part of the same failures for years, maybe decades, suggest that he is quite comfortable with mediocrity. He is quite comfortable with “LICO” as a racing style.
John, in Mr. Hamilton you have a guy in your organization who knows and understands what success looks and feels like, how successful teams should operate, so why not give him a chance to lead you back to your glory days? – He has won prodigiously in his illustrious career. He clearly does not need Ferrari to build his legacy; He has already done that; he is trying to help. On the other hand, Ferrari desperately needs him to bring them back to prominence, so allow the man to help you so you can be counted among the Ferrari greats. He is already great. You are contractually paying Lewis a base salary of around $60 million per year, let him help you, he can!!
Make no mistake John, Sir Lewis Hamilton’s public responds in saying, “I back my team. I back myself. I will not give up. Not now, not then, not ever” – can be interpreted as a loud middle finger back at you and your anemic racing team. Is Mr. Elkann being too stubborn to recognize that the engineers and mechanics he publicly praises for delivering “a better car” have been around forever and a day and they have nothing to show for it. Lewis on the other hand brings with him a storied career of dominance, championships, and championship pedigree supported by people who were exceptionally good at what they do. Ferrari currently does not have those kinds of quality people in the organization. If they did, championship aside, Leclerc would at least have more race wins than Lando Norris does. Hamilton is a cut above the weight class of anyone currently in the Ferrari racing organization, let him help you.
I hope for the sake of your organization Mr. Hamilton grows bolder and louder, so you are either forced to listen or pay him to stay home. His success has given him the platform, the authority, and the gravitas to challenge the mediocrity you so readily support. He has nothing to prove, you need him, not the other way around. The failed engineers who are complaining because they have had their feelings hurt will get over it, they will be just fine.
Clearly 18 years and counting of frustration for your fanbase, evidently 18 years and counting of failures on the grid is not enough to convince you or your organization that what they are doing does not work. You do not need to look too far to see the idiocy of Elkann’s statement.
