Ferrari chairman rejects €1.1bn offer

Ferrari F1 chairman John Elkann has rejected a reported €1.1billion offer for one of the other brands that his famous Agnelli family owns.

Elkann, grandson of Fiat tycoon Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli, is the chairman of the wider Ferrari brand, and has a lot of say in the running of the F1 team too.

Last month, Elkann was criticised for telling both Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to 'talk less' and focus on their driving, amid a difficult 2025 season for the Maranello-based outfit.

But Elkann and his company Exor who look after the Agnelli family's holdings, have had other things on their plate in December outside of Ferrari.

It's understood that cryptocurrency firm Tether made an offer for Italian football club Juventus that was in the region of €1.1billion, an offer that has now been rejected.

The Agnelli family have been majority investors in Juventus since 1949, and were managers of the club since even before that in 1923.

In a video message posted on the Juventus website, Elkann personally reassured fans that they would not be selling, pointing to this history. "Juventus, our history and our values are not for sale," he said.

"Juve has been part of my family for 102 years," Elkann added. "Over the course of a century, four generations have emboldened it, made it strong, taken care of it in tough times, and celebrated it in the many festive moments.

"We continue to support our squad and are looking toward the future in order to build a winning Juve."

What did John Elkann say about Lewis Hamilton?

Elkann's full comments to media surrounding Hamilton and Leclerc back in November 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."

Hamilton responded to this ahead of the Las Vegas GP weekend, saying: "We’ve just been focused on doing our job back at the factory, so everyone’s super-focused on improving.

"I mean I speak to John every week. We have an amazing relationship. The passion has not disappeared from our team."

When one reporter claimed that Elkann’s comments were evidence of blame culture at Ferrari, Hamilton gave his verdict on what the atmosphere was like within the team.

"I mean I don’t feel like there’s a blame culture here, I think look, we’re all in the same boat," the seven-time world champion added.

"Ultimately we all have to take accountability and responsibility, absolutely all of us, and every single one of us have to play our part."

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