Guenther Steiner’s assessment of John Elkann’s attack on Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc is spot on

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Ferrari’s name has been circulating a lot since John Elkann’s attack on his drivers at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The CEO told Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to ‘talk less’ after they suffered yet another tricky event in Sao Paulo.

Both drivers retired from Sunday’s race, although Leclerc could do little to prevent his, given that Kimi Antonelli speared into the side of him. Ferrari couldn’t have been too upset with that.

They’re still in the fight for second place in the constructors’ championship, but, across the season, they just haven’t been good enough to achieve it. The SF25 has been too slow.

Hamilton’s feedback documents were dismissed by some Ferrari staff, which isn’t a very clever move if they want to be moving the team in the right direction.

After taking some time to think, Karun Chandhok knows what ‘the root’ of Ferrari’s problems is, and it’s not going to be something they can fix overnight.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton thought he was joining the ‘Instagram’ version of Ferrari, ex-Red Bull driver says

Guenther Steiner’s ‘weird’ assessment of John Elkann’s attack on Ferrari drivers is spot on

F1 fans have told Hamilton they support him after Elkann’s comments. Obviously, he’s had one of the most difficult years of his career, but that hasn’t always been down to his own performance.

He just hasn’t been given the car to compete enough. A winter gamble by his team to change concept didn’t work, and they’ve been chasing their tails ever since.

Ralf Schumacher thinks Elkann is upset with Leclerc because he was linked with joining another team, but there’s hardly anything he can do about that. It’s not within his control.

Guenther Steiner’s summary of the comments is just right. He thinks they were ‘weird’, and that making the move to criticise his staff in public is not the correct move.

“He is the supremo,” he said. “Obviously, he owns most of the company or part of the company. I don’t know how much he owns. More than me, anyway. You know he says, ‘These people shouldn’t speak.’ He is allowed to critique because in the end, he’s the boss.

“But I think he shouldn’t do that in public. Because with Lewis. I mean, Charles, the guy puts heart and soul into this, everything. What more [do] you want from Charles?

“It’s not showing good leadership, saying, ‘Oh, this guy is doing it right, the mechanics are good, the engineers are good, but you guys are bad,’ in public,” Steiner continued.

“Obviously, no comment about Fred [Vasseur], so I find it weird, to say the least, to make a comment like this from a person at that level of the company. The highest level.”

READ MORE: Fred Vasseur phone call may have sparked Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s ‘attack’ on Lewis Hamilton

Why there’s a lot of pressure on Ferrari to deliver in 2026

For a long time, Ferrari have claimed that they’ll be putting a lot of eggs in their basket for the 2026 F1 regulations.

If they want that move to have paid off, at the very least, they need to be contending for victories at every race.

Elkann needs to blame Fred Vasseur as the big decision-maker for their downfalls if he wants to point the blame at anyone. The drivers can only do their best with what they have.

Not long ago, Leclerc was ‘not happy’ with a Ferrari problem that cost him in Brazil, and they’re the sort of processes that must be cleaned up for next year. The operation must be smoother.