- F1
The best driver line-up (on paper) on the 2025 grid, but no wins in 21 races – what’s gone so wrong at Ferrari?
Kieran JacksonFormula 1 CorrespondentFriday 21 November 2025 08:20 GMTComments
CloseLewis Hamilton labels debut Ferrari F1 season a ‘nightmare’
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For all intents and purposes, a few off-the-cuff comments from John Elkann last week have caused quite the maelstrom in the helter-skelter world that is Scuderia Ferrari. And what is even more concrete, given the backlash triggered, is that the Ferrari chair’s interview very much did not have the intent, nor the purpose, desired.
To recap, off the back of Ferrari’s victory in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Bahrain and, on the same weekend, Ferrari’s double DNF in the Brazilian Grand Prix, Elkann praised the engineers and mechanics at Ferrari F1 for their car improvements and rapid pit-stops in recent months. That, in itself, was questionable. But then came the main soundbite.
“If we look at the rest, it’s not up to par,” he stated. “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.”
open image in galleryLewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were told to ‘talk less’ by the Ferrari chair (Getty)Eh? It seemed almost too fanciful to be true. Was Elkann really calling out Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc – on paper the best driver line-up in the sport – for the team’s shortcomings this season? Not the dud of a car, which has been the fourth-fastest on the grid?
To their credit, with nine days to reflect, Hamilton and Leclerc did not bite back against their big boss ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Hamilton stated he has a “great relationship” with Elkann, who was, no doubt, a key player in the Briton swapping Mercedes silver for Ferrari red.
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Hamilton added: “I wake up thinking about it [driving]. I go to sleep thinking about it, and I think about it while I am sleeping. If anything, I have to focus on being able to unplug more.”
Leclerc, similarly, moved to reveal he talks to Elkann weekly on the phone and did so after the disappointment in Brazil. “We spoke about everything,” Leclerc said. “Including about what he intended to say. John wants to be constructive and push the team to do better.”
Of course, we’ve been here before with Ferrari, but it’s never been quite as demoralising and underwhelming as this year. After sealing second in last year’s constructors’ championship and with Hamilton signing to the tune of £50m-a-year in F1’s biggest-ever transfer, the tifosi were quite rightly in a state of pre-season frenzy at the beginning of the year. Would 2025 be the year the title-drought – stretching back to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 – was broken?
Yet qualifying in race one is often the biggest truth-teller. In Australia, Leclerc was seventh, Hamilton was eighth. By the end of a frenetic grand prix in the Melbourne rain, those spots had changed to eighth and 10th respectively. It has barely picked up in the months since.
open image in galleryJohn Elkann’s (left) comments caused a stir (Getty Images)Peaks have been few and far between: Hamilton’s sprint win in China, Leclerc’s pole position in Hungary. But in 21 grands prix, Ferrari have not won once and, more pertinently, they have not even been in contention.
Fred Vasseur – who, somewhat bizarrely, was given a new deal in July – and his outfit are heading for their first winless year since 2021. Hamilton, in his 19th season in the sport, is on track for his first year without a podium finish. In fact, his last podium was in Vegas last year. Elkann can criticise it all he likes, but Hamilton was right after Brazil: it has indeed been a “nightmare”.
And while Hamilton’s level of performance has been a rung or two lower than Leclerc’s – illustrated by the Monegasque’s seven podiums and 66 more points – the 40-year-old is not the first multiple world champion to come a cropper within the peculiar recent workings of Ferrari’s F1 team.
open image in gallerySebastian Vettel (left) and Fernando Alonso (right) both failed to win a title at Ferrari (Getty Images)Both Fernando Alonso (2010-2014) and Sebastian Vettel (2015-2020) arrived at Ferrari in the expectation of extending their championship tally, but amid a vast array of issues from governance and leadership down to raw speed and strategy mishaps, a title never materialised.
In fact, it is worth mentioning that since the death of Enzo Ferrari in 1988, Ferrari have only enjoyed one sustained period of Formula 1 success, when the team was run by Jean Todt and Ross Brawn at the start of this century and, noticeably, very separate from the rest of the business. Michael Schumacher was the beneficiary then, with five consecutive titles.
What does all this signal? Simply that the failings – historic at that – cannot be put at the feet of the drivers wedged in the cockpit, behind the wheel of a dud of a car. The microscope should, instead, be planted within the 5,000-worker base at Maranello. Next year, a new set of regulations offers a fresh opportunity for the Scuderia to get its act together.
McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull have all won multiple grands prix this year, with Ferrari flagging behind. In a search for answers, perhaps Elkann should look in the (rear-view) mirror, rather than throw unnecessary shade towards his star pairing.
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