Guenther Steiner calls out Elkann over public jab at Hamilton and Leclerc: “That’s not leadership”
Ferrari needed a pressure valve after São Paulo. John Elkann chose a megaphone.
The Ferrari president’s broadside at his own drivers — urging Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to “talk less” after the team slumped again — has landed about as well as a cross-threaded wheel nut. And Guenther Steiner, never short of an opinion, thinks the boss crossed a line.
Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, the former Haas team principal said Elkann’s public dressing-down of his star pairing was the wrong message, in the wrong forum.
“He’s the boss, he can critique,” Steiner said. “But not in public. It doesn’t show good leadership to say ‘mechanics are great, engineers are great, but the drivers are not’ in front of the world.”
Ferrari’s season, once talked up as a title bid, has shrunk into a scrap to salvage the top end of the Constructors’ table, with the team sitting fourth and the races running out. Brazil was the latest bruise: a double DNF and a long flight home with more questions than answers.
Elkann’s reaction was pointed. He praised pit crews and engineers — “always first” in their execution, he said — then jabbed at the rest. Drivers, he added, should “focus on driving, talk less,” and keep sight of the target: second in the championship still on the table.
You don’t need a Maranello decoder ring to know who “the rest” are. Which is why Steiner bristled. He singled out Leclerc’s commitment, arguing the Monégasque leaves nothing behind. “What more do you want from Charles?” he asked. As for Hamilton, Steiner noted, you know exactly what you’re getting with a seven-time champion — and Ferrari wanted it.
“Who decided the drivers?” Steiner added. “Sometimes you have to look in the mirror. If you picked them — and for sure he agreed to hire Lewis — then you own that decision too.”
It’s the optics that sting. Ferrari’s internal critique is famously robust; its external critique, historically, does more damage than good. When the president draws a circle around his two drivers in public, he isn’t just sending a message into the garage. He’s sending one into their helmets.
There’s also the Fred Vasseur question. Elkann didn’t mention his team principal, who’s spent the past two seasons trying to smooth Ferrari’s rough edges and rebuild trust after a turbulent era. Keeping drivers onside is part of that job. Doing it with the president tossing grenades from the boardroom balcony is another matter.
To be fair to Elkann, timing can turn anyone’s temperature up. Ferrari’s wider racing program has delivered elsewhere, and Brazil was a gut punch: no points, both cars out, and the narrative turning sour just when the politics usually get loud. Steiner even allowed for that possibility, suggesting the president might’ve spoken “a bit emotional” in the heat of it all.
But this is why leaders go carefully with microphones. Ferrari’s 2025 story was meant to be about Hamilton’s arrival, Leclerc’s prime, and a car worthy of both. Instead, the headline right now is the one team presidents hate: Ferrari vs Ferrari.
What happens next? Expect a reset. Hamilton and Leclerc aren’t likely to add petrol to this fire in public — both know how this game works — and Vasseur will want the noise turned down as the calendar winds toward its finale. The sporting target Elkann set is still in reach if the car, strategy and reliability play ball. That requires everyone pulling together, not pointing fingers.
And if Ferrari’s president wanted his words to sharpen focus, there’s a risk they did the opposite. Drivers, like engineers and mechanics, perform best when their bosses champion them in the open and challenge them behind closed doors.
Steiner’s verdict was blunt because the paddock knows this drill. Ferrari can be formidable when it’s unified. When it’s not, the lap time tells the story before anyone does.
The ball’s in Maranello’s court. Keep swinging at each other, or swing at the stopwatch.
