Ferrari’s last drivers’ title was won by Kimi Raikkonen in 2007,, external and their last constructors’ crown in 2008.
Only four times in the 15 years since have they been in a position potentially to win the championship.
In 2010 and 2012, Alonso drove out of his skin to take the fight to Sebastian Vettel in a faster Red Bull only to fall just short.
In 2017 and 2018, with Vettel now at the team, Ferrari had a faster car than Mercedes for a significant chunk of each season, but did not achieve their potential as a result of a combination of failures by the team and errors from the driver.
Elkann acknowledges the “very strong competition” from Red Bull and Mercedes in this period and admits Ferrari “haven’t been able to convert our competitiveness, our potential, into sufficient victories”.
The question is why.
“There are always many, many reasons,” he replies, “and it goes back to every single aspect counts. I recall when it was I had to get deeper engaged. We had a really bad season in 2020 and one of the things that surprised me then is that we actually did worse in pit stops than our ranking in the championship.
“That was an indicator of the mindset, because ultimately to really win you need to get good at everything. It’s true that on the margin, if you don’t have a competitive car, the rest won’t make you win, but if you have that mindset, it is difficult for you to win.”
He points to Ferrari’s progress on pit stops since.
In 2022, 80% were below three seconds; this year that has increased to 88%. Ferrari are ranked second in pit stops behind Red Bull, and have the second fastest pit stop all year – the 1.93 seconds they achieved with Leclerc in Qatar has been beaten only by McLaren’s 1.80 with Lando Norris in the same race.
Elkann credits sporting director Diego Ioverno for this, adding: “That is an indication of how focus and intentions are ultimately an important requisite to be able to reach competitiveness and ultimately be able to translate that into outcomes.”
Another change in attitude Elkann is encouraging is a more international approach to team-building.
Vasseur is the first non-Italian Ferrari team principal since Todt, even if Binotto was born in Switzerland, and Elkann says: “What is important is to have the best possible team, and if you’re able to have the best possible team and have women and men coming from different nationalities and backgrounds that enable that to happen, that is very welcome.
“Our identity is very clearly defined as Italian and the backbone of our organisation is Italian. But that is not in any way a detriment. On the contrary, it is a base on which you can complement with very strong talents coming from different places.”