Villeneuve: The situation at Ferrari may get out of control

      Jacques Villeneuve does not rule out that an unhealthy atmosphere within the Ferrari team could affect the team's form, which is already leaving much to be desired.

      The Scuderia has not yet won a race this year, and nothing suggests their chances of victory in the remaining three rounds will be any higher than in the twenty-one Grands Prix already held.

      After the São Paulo Grand Prix, in which none of the Italian team's drivers reached the finish—mainly because they became unwitting participants in incidents—Ferrari president John Elkann said that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton should talk less and pay more attention to driving.

      The 1997 world champion, who works as a pundit for several broadcasters including F1 TV, sees the situation differently: “We live in times when everything is clearly exaggerated, blown out of proportion — whether it’s what appears on social media or the result of an excessive obsession with analysis.

      But I don’t think comments like Elkann’s can be helpful, and they certainly don’t foster a positive approach. Because Leclerc and Hamilton are united in their desire to support the team. Both actively use social media, urging everyone else to be united as well.

      It’s obvious that morale within Ferrari is poor, and that’s not surprising. The team hasn’t won the championship for so many years, and while at the start of the year everyone had fairly high expectations, these were later replaced by huge disappointment. So emotions can easily boil over.

      But the problem is that when such stories make it into the press, the picture becomes very unflattering, and that’s always bad. Then the situation can get out of control. Ferrari’s management should act more cautiously, because the line is very thin. From history we remember what happened to Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and many other Ferrari drivers who had strong characters. It would be a great pity if things ended the same way now.”

      Villeneuve means that after the 1990 season Mansell left Ferrari amid scandal because he couldn’t work with Prost, and at the end of the following season the Maranello team's management decided to dismiss the then three-time world champion early — because he publicly expressed dissatisfaction with an uncompetitive car.

      The Canadian believes that if the atmosphere in the team does not improve, the risk will increase that Hamilton will want to leave Ferrari, and such a split is unlikely to be amicable.