‘Lead by example’: Button urges Elkann to keep Ferrari’s hard talks in-house
Jenson Button has added some bite to the debate around John Elkann’s public dressing-down of Ferrari’s drivers, suggesting the chairman should take his own advice and keep the conversations behind closed doors.
Elkann, speaking in Milan after Ferrari’s bruising São Paulo weekend that ended in a double DNF for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, exempted the mechanics and engineers from blame before declaring “the rest is not up to par.” He also said the drivers “need to focus on driving, talk less,” while noting second in the Constructors’ standings was still within reach.
Button’s first reaction came swiftly on Instagram: “Maybe John should lead by example.” And on Sky’s The F1 Show, the 2009 world champion unpacked what he meant — not in fury, but in the pragmatic tone of someone who’s lived through paddock politics.
“They’ve always had a lot of pressure on them to perform,” he said of Ferrari. “Every F1 team does, but especially Ferrari… You’ve got the whole of Italy wanting Ferrari to win races, so there’s so much outside pressure and internally for the whole team.”
Then came the crux. “John only has two cars in the red garage,” Button noted. “It’s very easy to find your racing driver and go and talk to him and say: ‘You know what? That’s not cool. That’s not the way we do business… Let’s talk about why you feel the need to do that.’” In other words: you don’t need a microphone to fix a culture problem.
This is the eternal Ferrari paradox. The Scuderia thrives on passion, but the glare of Maranello’s expectations can turn a spark into a wildfire. Public rebukes from the top might scratch an itch in the moment; they rarely sharpen the knife for Sunday. Button’s point is less about mollycoddling drivers and more about getting the best out of them — and two drivers of Hamilton and Leclerc’s quality, experience and stature respond best to clarity, not headlines.
“Communication is the best thing in anything,” Button added. “Especially in a team when you have thousands of people developing a car, and you’ve got two drivers that are two of the best in the world. Just go and have a chat.”
It’s not hard to see why Button’s words landed. Ferrari are still fighting for position as the season winds down in 2025, and Elkann’s “talk less” line landed like a rallying cry mixed with a reprimand. The mechanics and engineers were publicly shielded; the implication was that the talking — and perhaps the noise around strategy, execution, and driver comments — had gone too far.
But if the aim is alignment, there’s a cleaner way to get there. Hamilton and Leclerc don’t need public motivation speeches; they need a united front and a car that behaves. They’ll talk when things aren’t right because that’s how feedback loops work in a high-performance environment. Tighten those loops, and the lap time tends to follow.
Ferrari have been here before. The difference now is the calibre of the pairing, the depth of resource, and the opportunity still on the table. Elkann’s desire to steady the ship is understandable. Button’s reminder is that leadership isn’t just what you say — it’s where you choose to say it.
