Who is John Elkann? The Ferrari F1 chief that kicked the hornet's nest

Ferrari

Who is John Elkann? The Ferrari F1 chief that kicked the hornet's nest

John Elkann has created quite a stir with his recent comments

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 11 November 2025 14:28 Updated: 10:54

John Elkann caused quite a stir when he proclaimed that Ferrari F1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton should 'talk less' and focus on their driving.

But who is the American-Italian, and what right does he have to comment on Ferrari's F1 operations?

Well, Elkann is the chairman of the wider Ferrari motorsport group, and so has a say in all of their motorsport operations, even if he is not intrinsically linked with the decision making.

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He was crucial in the negotiations which saw seven-time world champion Hamilton join Ferrari, reportedly offering significant investment in Hamilton's charitable organisations and off-track business ventures.

Elkann plays a major role in the Ferrari business, and was part of the hierarchy that opted to give F1 team principal Fred Vasseur a new contract back in July.

John Elkann's early life

Elkann was born in New York in 1976, and for the majority of his life held dual citizenship between Italy and the US. However, he dropped his US citizenship back in 2012, and is the son of Margherita Agnelli of the famous Agnelli family.

In 1997, Elkann was selected as the heir of his grandfather Gianni Agnelli, who was the head of Fiat at the time, and was the richest man in modern Italian history.

That move also promoted Elkann onto the board of Fiat and, following the death of Agnelli in 2003, Elkann became vice-chairman of Fiat.

The Italian then also became chairman of Fiat in 2010, before becoming chairman of Exor - the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family - in 2011. Following success in both of these roles, Elkann became chairman at Ferrari in 2018.

The Agnelli family hold a controlling stake in a number of huge global brands including Ferrari, CNH Industrial, Iveco Group, Juventus FC, and The Economist Group.

John Elkann's Ferrari rise

As well as being chairman of Ferrari, Elkann also holds a controlling stake in Scuderia Ferrari, which is the company's auto racing division, and has overseen their return to the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and, as a result, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

Ferrari recently wrapped up their first WEC titles since 1972, in a proud moment for the Maranello-based outfit at the 8 Hours of Bahrain race.

He has not yet overseen a world championship title with the F1 team however, with Ferrari currently in a dry spell in that regard, not having won an F1 title of any kind since 2008.

Elkann briefly served as the CEO of Ferrari in 2020 and 2021, but has since been replaced by Benedetto Vigna, who oversees the more day-to-day running of the business.

What did John Elkann say about Lewis Hamilton?

Elkann's full comments to Italian media surrounding Hamilton and Leclerc were as follows: "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 who it's important that they focus on driving and talk less, because we still have important races ahead of us and it's not impossible to get second place.

"In Bahrain, we won the WEC title. When Ferrari is united, you get results."

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