The Brazilian Grand Prix was a brutal and humiliating affair for Scuderia Ferrari, a weekend that will likely be remembered not for the racing action, but for the shocking and visceral public implosion of Formula 1’s most storied team.

For Ferrari, the double DNF (Did Not Finish) delivered an immediate and painful loss of points, but the true disaster came later when the team’s highest authority delivered a stinging, unprecedented rebuke to its two star drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari Chairman John Elkann, speaking at an Olympic sponsorship event in Rome, publicly and unequivocally blamed his drivers for the team’s abysmal performance and catastrophic decline, telling them they must “focus on driving and talk less.”

This staggering statement, aimed squarely at the seven-time World Champion and the team’s golden boy, has instantly ignited a firestorm of speculation, revealing the deep, perhaps irreparable, cracks forming within the walls of Maranello. What started as the dream combination of the sport’s most successful driver joining the most legendary team has officially soured into a public nightmare of internal friction and dwindling hope.

The Brazilian Catastrophe: A Double DNF and a Season’s Collapse

The Brazilian Grand Prix had all the hallmarks of a bad sign from the outset. Throughout the sprint qualifying and the main event’s qualifying sessions, both Hamilton and Leclerc struggled for pace, culminating in a main event where disaster was inevitable.

Leclerc’s day ended through unfortunate circumstances, retiring after getting caught up in a midfield battle. He sustained damage when hit, forcing him out of contention. However, it was Lewis Hamilton’s retirement that truly symbolized the team’s struggles and the immense pressure currently weighing down the British legend. After tumbling down the order on the first lap, Hamilton attempted a recovery drive, only to make a completely uncharacteristic mistake by rear-ending the Alpine of Franco Colapinto. The collision destroyed his front wing and floor, eventually forcing him to retire before the finish.

For a driver of Hamilton’s caliber, such an error is almost unheard of. It wasn’t a mechanical failure or a strategy blunder; it was a pure driving error that speaks volumes about the palpable frustration and tension surrounding the team. This mistake should be seen as a direct consequence of the pressure and poor performances that have characterized his season.

The immediate consequences were devastating: Ferrari dropped to fourth in the constructor’s championship, falling 36 points behind Mercedes. For a team of Ferrari’s stature, finishing outside the top three for only the second time in a decade is a crisis, amplified by the significant financial implications. Each position gained closer to the top is estimated to be worth approximately $10 million over the place below, making the decline an extremely costly affair both in prestige and monetary value. The performance decline is stark: McLaren, who finished just 14 points ahead of Ferrari last year, won the title this season, underscoring the astonishing drop-off at Maranello.

Elkann’s Public Scolding: The Unprecedented Attack

The anger within the Ferrari hierarchy reached its tipping point after the Brazilian Grand Prix. John Elkann’s public statements were not merely a critique; they were a declaration of war against the drivers, holding them directly responsible for the team’s current predicament.

Elkann was clear about where he saw the problem lying: “The team’s mechanics and engineers were performing well but if we look at the rest, it is not up to scratch.” He then delivered the hammer blow: “We definitely have drivers who need to focus on driving and talk less because we still have important races ahead of us and getting second place is not impossible.”

For the chairman to step up and publicly call out his drivers is a massive, unprecedented deal. While internal conversations would have been happening behind the scenes, this move to the media is a clear defense of the factory team and a direct rebuttal to the drivers who have been voicing their frustrations all season long.

The main target of Elkann’s ire is widely believed to be Lewis Hamilton, whose comments after his retirement from the Brazilian race were intensely negative. Hamilton described his first season at Ferrari in crushing terms, stating, “This is a nightmare and I’ve been living it for a while. The flip between the dream of driving for this amazing team and the nightmare of the results we’ve had the ups and downs is challenging.” He followed this up by calling the race “obviously a disaster for us, a disappointment for everyone in the team.”

These remarks clearly crossed a line for the Ferrari chairman. Hamilton commands a record-breaking contract, reportedly costing the team $50 million a year. Elkann is undoubtedly expecting a commensurate return on this huge investment, and Hamilton’s current performance—and public complaints—are failing to deliver. While Hamilton’s complaints about the car were a feature of his final seasons at Mercedes, the current relationship dynamic shows Elkann’s extreme impatience, contrasting sharply with how his former boss, Toto Wolff, often defended his driver.

The Unintended Casualty: Charles Leclerc

While Hamilton appears to be the primary target of the chairman’s frustration, Elkann’s blanket criticism of the drivers has disastrously “caught Charles Leclerc in the crossfire,” creating a far bigger problem for the team’s future.

The Monégasque driver has arguably been the better of the two Ferrari drivers this season and has been the team’s best driver for approximately half a decade. Leclerc has been sacrificing the prime years of his F1 career for Ferrari, consistently proving himself worthy of a championship-challenging car, yet receiving little in return. If a lesser driver were paired with the current car, Ferrari could have gone the entire season without a podium. Leclerc is not the problem; he is the solution. He is Ferrari’s “prized asset.”

Elkann’s attempt to frame his comments as motivational—a suggestion reportedly pushed through Italian media—is viewed by critics as perhaps the “worst motivational speech in the history of sport.” Telling drivers who have already demonstrated immense commitment and talent to “stop talking” is not a recipe for encouraging them to try harder. Instead, it serves to upset and alienate Leclerc, who is quite clearly the better-performing driver right now.

Leclerc’s patience is wearing thin; he has voiced his frustration multiple times this season, and critically, he has a potential break point in his current contract. By issuing a public scolding that targets him alongside the underperforming Hamilton, Elkann risks driving away the one talent capable of leading the team back to championship glory.

Cracks Showing: The Total Collapse of the Ferrari Dream

The events following the Brazilian Grand Prix represent more than just a bad weekend; they signal a deep, organizational fault line within Scuderia Ferrari. The team has invested a massive amount of capital and prestige into securing Lewis Hamilton, only to see the dream quickly devolve into a nightmare season of costly errors and public feuding. Hamilton’s immense salary is currently yielding poor results, and in response, the chairman has chosen to deflect responsibility for the car and strategy onto the drivers.

This bizarre situation—where the drivers have been instructed to “talk less” after an internal meltdown—is a clear indication that “the cracks are showing after a very disappointing season.” The team’s traditional problems, such as race operation failures that have plagued them historically, continue to fester, but the leadership has pivoted to blame the talent.

The fundamental question remains: Can a team salvage its season, let alone its future, when its chairman and its star drivers are engaged in a vicious public feud? The decision to publicly admonish Hamilton and Leclerc has placed unbearable pressure on the team’s internal dynamic, particularly alienating the consistently performing Charles Leclerc.

The ‘dream of driving for this amazing team,’ as Hamilton put it, has turned into a brutal reality of poor performance and public humiliation. Unless John Elkann and the team leadership can repair this disastrous rift, the internal fallout from Brazil could mark the beginning of a total and irreversible collapse for the most iconic name in Formula 1.