Ferrari ‘sources’ shared the truth about the team’s problems before John Elkann blamed the drivers

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John Elkann’s recent blame of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc regarding Ferrari’s performance this season stunned many, but they have also contradicted the sentiments that the Italian constructor have been open about during the season.

The chairman of the iconic Italian brand was furious following his F1 team’s double DNF at the Brazilian Grand Prix, launching an attack on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for their vocal frustrations.

It marked the second time that both Ferrari drivers failed to finish a race in the current campaign, and the third completely pointless result for the Scuderia when including their double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix.

John Elkann’s comments were supposed to be constructive and may have had the intended effect within the confines of the Maranello-based factory, but the 49-year-old also received a lot of backlash for his fierce comments.

F1 fans leapt to the defence of Hamilton after his comments were broadcast on Sky Sport Italia, with the current sentiment being that they were aimed at the seven-time world champion, rather than Leclerc.

READ MORE: Ferrari engineers have chosen their scapegoat for the 2025 season and it’s not Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari have been open regarding their struggles with the SF-25 before John Elkann’s damning verdict

Elkann was certain, in his comments, that the drivers were the root cause of Ferrari’s issues, as he highlighted that the hard work of engineers in Maranello was satisfactory, and the car wasn’t the issue.

However, as pointed out by F1 journalist Ronald Vording on the latest episode of the James Allen on F1 podcast, Ferrari have been open about the issues they have faced to develop their car in hopes of challenging McLaren.

He said, “Ferrari has much bigger issues. I think he had some good points by saying that pit stops have improved massively. Execution from the pit wall has gotten better because we haven’t seen too many strategy blunders this year.

“So I think those were valid points. But at the same time, the car just is not quick enough and is also still extremely tricky. It has been like that for the entire season; the Ferrari car is much more, even sources within the team confirmed it, much more ride height sensitive than some of the others.

“So, at some bumpy tracks, they had to lift it a bit more. Of course, that will cost performance, and it also makes it more tricky to really find the limit because if you go too far, you will get disqualified. So, that’s just a really difficult aspect of the car.

“And secondly, they even admitted it themselves within the team that they stopped development quite early on. And Mercedes introduced some upgrades after that. Red Bull, of course, introduced upgrades.”

The ride height issue has plagued the Prancing Horse throughout their efforts in 2025, which was the reason for their disqualifications in China and hindered a potential win for Leclerc in Hungary.

In an attempt to fix this issue, Ferrari ignored the wishes of Hamilton and Leclerc, who felt like the car would have benefited more from some aero updates that were made redundant by the new suspension.

As it turned out, the suspension upgrade proved to throw even more spanners in the works, as it made the car less sensitive to setup changes. This means that their star drivers are now unable to tweak setups on race weekends to their individual needs.

READ MORE: John Elkann told to focus on the ‘real issue’ at Ferrari by McLaren insider after blaming his drivers

Ferrari are the only team within the top four front-runners not to have won a race yet in 2025

The fact that Ferrari are within a chance of clinching second-place in the constructors’ standings is impressive, considering the fact that they are the only team within the top four staples of the championship to have not featured on the top step of the podium this season.

Jolyon Palmer believes Hamilton is the only reason why Ferrari are still in contention. The Scuderia’s line-up has been the most consistent when taking into account the difficulties that Kimi Antonelli and Yuki Tsunoda have experienced throughout the campaign.

However, the Italian constructor lost the slim advantage they held over their rivals in the standings following the results of the Sprint and Grand Prix in Brazil.

Heading into Sao Paulo with a one-point lead over Mercedes in the battle for P2, the result saw the Italian constructor drop down to fourth as the Brackley-based team capitalised to claim a 36-point advantage heading into the final three rounds of the season.