The Ferrari president is demanding more “clarity” on F1 regulations from the FIA

John Elkann, president of Ferrarigave his first interview in over a year to Las Vegas GP last weekend, the choice of ‘BBC‘ as a place to answer many of the questions that the tifosi have about the future of the Italian company within the Formula 1. Among them, Elkann was asked if there were any issues he would like to see Formula 1 change in the future. There he pointed directly to the regulations and their method of application, especially after the unfair penalty that plagued Carlos Sainz this weekend after his crash against the poorly maintained sewer on the American track in Free Practice 1 .

“On the one hand, there are many changes in the evolution of technologies and the importance of being neutral in carbon emissions. Within this, it is important to clearly define the rules and their application,” Elkann began. “You don’t want things to happen like the 2021 championship, the way it ended”he continued, to finally add the example of what happened to Sainz in Las Vegas: “You don’t want to have situations like here in Las Vegas, where they penalize you 10 positions (for no fault).”

“From a regulatory standpoint in terms of policies and applications and what we’ve seen with the budget limits, those are areas where we want to have more clarity.”he added, referring directly to the penalty Red Bull received for jumping the budget ceiling in 2021.

Confidence in Vasseur and the team’s progress

John Elkann also reflects in this interview on the bad season of 2020, when Ferrari hit the bottom, and the many details that he realizes need to be improved at Ferrari, highlighting as important the mindset. Therefore, after 2021 and 2022, Elkann decided to opt for a change, giving Mattia Binotto’s position at team leader to Frédéric Vasseur.

“Why didn’t Ferrari win? There are always many, many reasons, and it all comes back to every aspect that matters. I remember when I needed to get more involved. We had a very bad season in 2020 and one of the things that surprised me the most was that we actually did better in the pit stops than in our World Championship qualifying. That is an indicator of the mentality that exists. In the end, to really win you have to be good at everything. Is it true? “If you don’t have a competitive car, the rest you won’t win, but it’s also true that if you have that mentality, it will be difficult for you to win.”commented on the matter, highlighting the team’s improvement in pit stops since then, providing strong numbers to accompany his words.

And in that sense, he underestimated the reality of including a Swiss team leader in such an Italianized structure. “The important thing is to have the best possible team, and if you can have the best possible team and have women and men of different nationalities and backgrounds that allow that to happen, that’s welcome.”he commented.

“Our identity is very clearly defined as Italian and the backbone of our organization is Italian. But that is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is a base where you can complement very strong talents that come from different place,” he added.

In this area, Elkann said that the team now has enough attitude and, to defend his argument, he used as an example the mentality that the team showed in Las Vegas after a bad start to the weekend, with Sainz’s accident in the sewer. that’s on track.

“I want to see what happened. We’re fast. They worked hard, they brought the car back, they did very well in qualifying. That’s the attitude you want to have and that’s the important thing to move forward and develop in 2024. The important thing to remember is that progress is definitely not linear. “The way you come out of bad results in the end makes you stronger if you have the right attitude, and this weekend was exactly an example of that.”

Leclerc and Sainz

The future of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz is not yet determined. Both expire at the end of next season (2024) and both drivers have indicated their willingness to continue. In this sense, Elkann wants to make it clear that he continues to trust the talent of Charles Leclerc after several years full of lights and shadows.

“Charles is a very strong driver with enormous potential and there is no reason why he cannot be world champion”said the Ferrari president, speaking positively of the couple formed by the Monegasque and the Spanish Sainz: “We believe that our drivers are very strong and have great potential. The important thing is to be able to work to convert that potential into real results.”