Facts or Farce: Does Ferrari Really Not Understand How to Handle Its Drivers?
- Rohan Singh
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
ROHAN SINGH - STAFF WRITER
If I had a nickel for every time a multi-time world champion joined Ferrari and saw his downfall, I would have three. Now, that isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened thrice. 'Let’s take a short view back to the past, gentlemen.' We are talking about wins and podiums and multiple championships. The Prancing Horse is galloping so hard that other teams can hardly match the pace. But all of this happened in the 20th century.
Come the 21st century, Ferrari won its last drivers’ championship in 2008. And since then, the depressed Ferrari fans keep saying, “Next year will be our year.” In an almost comical fashion, the team has an amazing resurgence, becomes absolutely amazing, and then comes crashing down even harder. Now, I hope that Ferrari doesn’t send a cease and desist order against me for slandering their pride and joy.
John Elkann Hits Out at Ferrari Drivers for Losing Focus
Who is John Elkann? He is the Executive Chairman of Ferrari (a hardcore industrialist). Ferrari’s most dedicated fans know their drivers better than the management of the team.
Now, Mr. Elkann was terribly upset with Ferrari’s performance in Brazil. Not a big deal; we all were. As he addressed the media post-race, his words were:
“If we look at the Formula 1 championship, we can say that on one hand, we have our mechanics, who are basically winning the championship with their performance and everything that has been 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 is not up to par.
“And surely we have drivers for whom it is important that they focus on driving and talk less, because we still have important races ahead of us, and getting second place is not impossible.”
Let’s take a breather and recount the achievements of the Ferrari drivers. Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion with more wins under his belt than any driver in history. Hamilton is the benchmark and the limit when you say Formula 1.
And Charles Leclerc? He is ‘Il-Predestinato,’ he is the one your mechanics celebrate when he somehow brings podiums in this forsaken 2025 season of Ferrari. Leclerc is the one who beat Sebastian Vettel in equal machinery and also the driver your team chose instead of Carlos Sainz for the 2025 season.
Maybe slandering them in the media is not a good idea for a team that is already facing a lot of issues.
Why Does it Matter? Are Ferrari Drivers Really Out of Focus?
'Oh, but Rohan, what about the drivers? Why aren’t they winning? Ferrari are clearly second-place fighters in the constructors’ championship.'
NO! A hard no. Ferrari? Runner-ups? Mercedes absolutely dominated in Singapore and Canada as George Russell took his two wins in 2025. Max Verstappen is a generational talent who is fighting for the championship, and his Red Bull is clearly getting faster.
When Ferrari was second in the driver’s championship, Red Bull was basically racing with a non-existent second driver and a multitude of problems under its belt. Mercedes was clearly not able to perform well due to tire degradation and temperature management. Also, the second driver in Silver Arrows is barely legally old enough to drive cars. He got his street license this year! McLaren were the only ones on the podium every weekend.
Now? Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, and McLaren are equally competitive (almost). There is a lot of contention between the top teams every race. However, the Ferrari drivers are still complaining like they have been since the start of the season.
Mercedes and Red Bull Racing both brought in upgrades and revisions to their front wing in Singapore. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s last upgrades were in Austria. So while Mercedes and Red Bull get to enjoy better cars, Lewis Hamilton had to wait an eternity for upgrades. And let’s not forget Charles Leclerc. That man has been fighting the McLarens like his life depends on it.
So maybe Mr. Elkann, the problem is not in the drivers. They are proven winners, and you have to give these winners a good racehorse. If you want an example, maybe you should check out Red Bull Racing and Gianpiero Lambiase’s radio with Max Verstappen whenever his car goes awry.
And if we talk about historical context, then let’s not forget that Ferrari drivers were really competitive in 2024 when their car was working out for them. When your drivers themselves are under-confident in their ability to clinch podiums, even though they are still defending aggressively on track, maybe you do need to change the car and not blame the drivers.
History Repeats Itself: What Vettel, Alonso, and Raikkonen Faced is Now the Reality of Leclerc and Hamilton
The last driver to truly have the team wrapped around his fingers at Ferrari was Michael Schumacher. He was effectively the ‘boss’ of Ferrari in his prime. When Fernando Alonso joined the team, he was incredibly competitive. His car? It was underperforming at best, and painfully so.
Even when Sebastian Vettel joined the team in 2015, he was unable to achieve the same level of performance he had at Red Bull Racing. The dramatic errors and strategy blunders that the team committed during his time have now become a certified meme, which unfortunately defines Ferrari in recent years.
The team harshly replaced Kimi Raikkonen, who is still their last driver’s champion, in 2018 in favor of Charles Leclerc. The very same Kimi Raikkonen, who bankrupted the Lotus F1 team even though he raced without the fiery passion of the younger drivers in the 2012 season.
Charles Leclerc has also faced this. In 2022, Ferrari was leading with Charles Leclerc gaining a more than 50-point lead over Max Verstappen. What happened after that was pure trauma for the drivers and fans alike. Lewis Hamilton is used to a team that ‘listens to him’ and essentially ‘revolves around him.’ And in 2025, he is calling himself ‘useless’ in front of the media, even though he is supposed to be Ferrari’s prime weapon.
When you have so many accounts of drivers losing their passion and edge as world champions, it is necessary to realize the faults inside the team instead of painting them as villains.
After all, your glorious history shows that this has become a pattern, and you are losing titles almost as quickly as these drivers are losing their speed.
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