John Elkann: Ferrari needs to improve

(Motorsport-Total.com) – “We have great confidence in Mattia Binotto and appreciate everything he and our engineers have done.” These are the words of John Elkann, Chairman of the Italian sports car maker Ferrari, recently Interview with “La Gazzetta dello Sport”.

It sounds like you want to strengthen the back of the team boss, who is mainly accounted for on social media, ahead of Ferrari’s important race at home in Monza. But Elkann did not leave his vote of confidence standing without subsequent thought. He says everyone’s business needs improvement. This also expressly applies to “the entire management team and the team leader”.

Ferrari’s balance sheet for 2022 is ambiguous. On the other hand, a series of bankruptcies, bad luck and meltdowns prevent Charles Leclerc from being able to seriously fight Max Verstappen for the world title. On the other hand, Ferrari is by far the most advanced team in Formula 1 in terms of massive performance.

Elkann: “We have seen that a lot of mistakes are still being made when it comes to reliability, leadership and strategy. Trusting Binotto and his team was the right decision and it paid off. Thanks to them we are competitive and winning again. But I am not satisfied because we are still able to do work. better “.

“We’re competitive this year. Just like I predicted two years ago. And we’ve turned that competitiveness into wins. We’ve been at the top at least four times,” says Elkann, praising Scuderia’s work with improving singles pit stops (70 percent instead of 48 percent). previous under three seconds) as a specific example.

Elkann backs the path taken by Binotto, first in terms of performance and only then in reliability. He knows Ferrari was suffering from a huge horsepower deficit after the engine issue. The Ferrari power unit is now a real powerhouse. That’s a good thing, because in the fall the powertrain will be frozen for the next three years.

“Our number one goal was to be competitive,” Elkann says. “If you’re not, you don’t have other options. On the other hand, you can always work on reliability. That’s why I think Ferrari can become the world champions for drivers and constructors before 2026, with Charles Leclerc in first place.”

The latter is a very interesting statement that Carlos Sainz will not like. Elkann obliquely expresses what is rumored in the ring anyway, which is that Leclerc should ideally be the one to return the title to Maranello. Even if Elkann has not completely forgotten Sainz when he said: “We may have the strongest pair of drivers in Formula 1.”