Ferrari civil war: Elkann's Hamilton jibe will destroy title chances

Just when you think Ferrari cannot get any more self-destructive, chairman John Elkann decides to open his mouth.

It is no secret the legendary F1 team are in the doldrums this year, currently fourth in the constructors’ standings after a double DNF in Brazil, and have been unable to secure a grand prix win.

Nevertheless Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have given it their everything, with the younger driver securing seven podiums and the champion working hard behind the scenes to turn the team’s fortunes around.

At such a difficult time in Ferrari’s F1 history, you’d think now would be the time for unity. For everyone, from the big bosses to the mechanics, to pull together as one and focus all their efforts on 2026.

Yet people rarely act rationally. Instead, Ferrari chairman Elkann is seemingly intent on the path of division, and his latest comments to the media only serve to highlight the extent of Ferrari’s distress - and why they won't win a title anytime soon.

On the one hand, Elkann was supportive of the team and its engineers, and said to the media: “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.”

It is fine to acknowledge this, and incredibly important to bolster team members who often go unpraised after a race weekend. But Elkann’s following words undid all of this positive sentiment.

"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...

“We have a lot of things that need to improve. For sure our drivers need to focus on Ferrari and not on themselves."

Hamilton and Leclerc face scrutiny

So, what do Elkann’s heated comments mean for Ferrari? It's hard to ignore scathing remarks from your own boss, and discord between your star drivers and the team’s chairman is not ideal.

Altogether his comments conjure an ‘us and them’ mentality, an attempt at divide and rule to ensure, what? Elkann’s own position? Whatever the impetus behind his comments, it is clear Elkann was not thinking about the team first. If he was, there wouldn’t have been such a brutal attempt to destabilise unity at Ferrari by attacking the very drivers the team’s success is dependent upon.

Openly criticising Leclerc and Hamilton is also a bold move, and unlikely to win Elkann further favour. While the two drivers have complained about the car in the media, both Hamilton and Leclerc have simultaneously reaffirmed their own belief and commitment to the team, commiserating with them after a poor result rather than blaming them.

If Elkann is aggrieved at the drivers’ treatment of the team, he will find the foundations for this sentiment easily proven false. Because when things have gone wrong, who has Hamilton been the first to blame? Himself! You need only look at his comments after the Hungarian GP to completely rubbish Elkann’s own musings to the media.

His disapproval of Hamilton and Leclerc also links back to an age-old mentality at Ferrari. That drivers are disposable and Ferrari will always be the bigger entity, regardless of the talent they have racing for them. Except this way of thinking hasn’t exactly won them many titles in the past decades, has it?

When you contrast this to McLaren, where for all their faults with ‘papaya rules’ it clearly establishes that no driver is bigger than the team, you can begin to see why they have risen so high and Ferrari flounders.

McLaren have demonstrated togetherness in the past two seasons, at least to the public. The way Zak Brown and Andrea Stella talk, is with unity and gratitude to the team and their drivers. All are of equal importance in their eyes and their message is clear. People make McLaren. They don’t have to prove themselves worthy of the team name, unlike those at Ferrari.

Fundamentally, both McLaren - and Red Bull - listen to their drivers. Lando Norris asked for the car to be taken in a direction which can win the team races, and he’s all but sealed the 2025 drivers’ title since.

Laurent Mekies’ new approach at Red Bull since he replaced Christian Horner, has focused on one major element and that is listening to Max Verstappen. The result? Their return into the F1 title fight, no matter how brief it was. You can see a pattern developing here. Listen to your drivers, trust in the talent back at the factory and the rest will follow.

Elkann’s comments only prove that Ferrari are miles off from achieving title success. That the team are reluctant to listen to their own drivers and have instead let them take the bullet for the disastrous 2025 season. Ferrari needs to mirror McLaren and Red Bull and lean on the expertise of Hamilton and Leclerc, not alienate them further.

Thankfully for Ferrari, Fred Vasseur has repeatedly confirmed his commitment and belief in Leclerc and Hamilton, and you can imagine the boss delivering a similarly defiant response to Elkann’s comments as his drivers.

As for the chairman himself, he needs to go. Creating further division at a time of crisis for Ferrari is not the way forward or a sure method to return to title success. Furthermore, taking a chunk out of two highly regarded drivers with championship winning calibre was incredibly misjudged.

Ferrari is no longer a holy emblem that commands blind devotion from the tifosi and the F1 fanbase, they’ve become too much of a joke for that. In an era of F1, where drivers and personalities are king not teams or manufacturers, fans will take Hamilton and Leclerc’s side.

We can all see clearly that Ferrari’s current issues aren’t driver related. And the team therefore must be able to see it too. Elkann’s comments were a desperate attempt to cling onto power.

Ferrari should not stand for such mutiny. If they let it pass by, Ferrari are further confirming that they are a team incapable of learning from their mistakes and are undeserving of their place in an F1 title fight.

This type of conduct might be expected from a team like Alpine. But to place Ferrari in the same league as McLaren, Red Bull or Mercedes, right now? It does these three teams great insult to suggest so.

F1 HEADLINES: Ferrari chief issues brutal statement as F1 champion retires

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