Headline: Villeneuve warns Ferrari over Elkann broadside: “It gets dirty when emotions spill out”
Ferrari’s post-São Paulo autopsy didn’t take long to turn public — and pointed. John Elkann’s call for underperforming departments to raise their game and for his drivers to “focus on driving, talk less” landed like a cold splash across Maranello. Jacques Villeneuve, never one to duck a sharp edge, says he was “a bit shocked” by the tone and timing — and he’s seen this movie before.
The 1997 World Champion drew a straight line from Sunday’s double retirement to a bigger risk: when internal frustration goes external, it rarely ends well at Ferrari. “We shouldn’t be surprised,” Villeneuve said, invoking a roll call of high-profile fallouts. “Remember how it ended up with Prost, with Mansell, with Alonso, with Vettel. It seems to be a trend at Ferrari. Ferrari comes first. And Ferrari will always protect Ferrari.”
He’s not wrong about the emotional whiplash. On the very weekend Ferrari toasted a title double in the World Endurance Championship, its F1 team left Interlagos with zero points and a slightly bruised leadership stance. Charles Leclerc was collected when Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli tangled. Lewis Hamilton sustained front-end damage after tagging Franco Colapinto’s Alpine and never recovered. By Monday in Milan, Elkann had fired the flare.
“Brazil was a huge disappointment,” the Ferrari president said. “In Formula 1, we have mechanics who are always first in performing pit stops. The engineers work to improve the car. The rest is not up to par. We have drivers who need to focus on driving, talk less, and we have important races ahead of us, and it is not impossible to finish second.”
Internally, sources framed it as motivation. Externally, it reads like a gauntlet — and Villeneuve thinks it risks fraying what’s held together reasonably well under pressure this year. “I didn’t see comments that were detrimental to the team coming from the drivers,” he said. “So, it’s the chairman who’s done this… It was a bit shocking, but it seems to be the Ferrari way when you look at the past. Most drivers have broken their teeth there, most drivers with personality. It’s a strange environment.”
There’s also the simple fact that Interlagos wasn’t about pace. It was chaos at the wrong moments. That’s partly why the message jarred with Villeneuve. “Brazil just turned out bad, not because there was a lack of speed or because the drivers were doing bad,” he said, adding that the fresh glow of the WEC triumph likely amplified the sting.
Then came the broader point, and it’s one that tends to rattle around F1 circles whenever Ferrari’s temperature spikes. Drivers aren’t just hired hands; they are partners in the project. “A driver is not an employee of the team, he’s an independent,” Villeneuve said. “They’re not little robots. You take drivers that also can think, who can help move the team forward.” Strip out that latitude, and you risk making matters worse — especially in an era where every barb multiplies across social media before lunch.
“I don’t see how those comments can be helpful, not least in creating a positive mindset,” he added. “Obviously, the energy at Ferrari is not great… It’s been years of not winning. There were high hopes this year, so it’s been a big let-down. The problem is that when it gets out into the media, it gets dirty and that’s never a nice thing. Then it gets bigger than it is and it can get out of control.”
That’s the slippery road he’s warning about. Ferrari’s history is glorious, but it’s also full of bruised relationships with big personalities who didn’t last. If Elkann’s statement was meant to light fires, fine. But fires need managing. With three rounds remaining, Ferrari still sit in the fight for P2 in the Constructors’ standings — fourth at present, 36 points away from Mercedes in second — which is exactly why the public scolding felt off-key to some inside the paddock. The team’s pit crew has been razor-sharp, the development curve has been steady, and the drivers, for the most part, have kept a united front in public. You can’t speak your way to form, but you can certainly talk your way into a bigger hole.
The next few weeks will show whether that message galvanizes or grates. Ferrari don’t need perfection to nick second; they need clean weekends, some luck in traffic, and their two star names fully locked in. The rest — the noise, the headlines, the history — is optional. Villeneuve’s hope is simple: that it stops here.
Because if there’s one thing Ferrari don’t need going into the run-in, it’s another rerun of the old story.
