Sky Sports F1 pundit snaps back at John Elkann with Lewis Hamilton title contender claim

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton look really far from impressed at Ferrari chairman John Elkann — Photo: © IMAGO

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Sky Sports F1 pundit snaps back at Elkann with Hamilton title contender claim

Karun Chandhok has responded to John Elkann's comments

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 15 November 2025 08:52

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok has issued his reaction to Ferrari chairman John Elkann's recent comments about Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Elkann said in an interview with Italian media that the two Ferrari drivers should 'talk less', and instead focus on their driving as the team looks to achieve second place in the constructors' championship.

He also pointed to the fact that Ferrari's World Endurance Championship team claimed title success last weekend in Bahrain, stating: "When Ferrari is united, you get results."

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Now, Chandhok has taken time to issue his response to Elkann's comments, and made a stunning claim about a potential Hamilton and Leclerc title tilt, laying the blame firmly at the door of the team, rather than the drivers.

"Reflecting on this a bit more," Chandhok said in a post on X. "In reality, if the Ferrari was as good as the McLaren this year then I truly believe that Charles & Lewis would have been title contenders, fighting for race wins.

"The root of Ferrari’s problem is that the car hasn’t been fast enough this year."

Those comments come despite the fact that Elkann praised Ferrari engineers for their work on the car's development, as well as Ferrari mechanics, but stated that everything else was 'below par'.

What did John Elkann say about Lewis Hamilton?

Elkann's full comments to 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."

Ferrari's torrid 2025 season

21 race weekends into the season, and neither Leclerc nor Hamilton have been able to seriously challenge for a grand prix victory.

Hamilton did win one race, a sprint race, but he has not even got onto the podium in a grand prix as of yet with his new team.

They're sat fifth and sixth in the drivers' championship, and have not been able to get anywhere near to winning Ferrari their first world championship of any kind since 2008, despite the team finishing just 11 points behind champions McLaren in 2024.

Despite all of this, team principal Fred Vasseur has recently been handed a new contract, and Ferrari have real hope that they're going to be able to make a jump on their competitors in 2026, when new regulations sweep into the sport.

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