Ferrari chairman John Elkann has detailed the changes to the mentality of everyone at the team that has led to their tremendous start to the 2022 season.
Ferrari’s last championship success arrived in the form of the constructors’ crown in 2008, while Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in 2007 remains their last Drivers’ Championship win.
Between 2018 and the start of this year, the Maranello side won just three races between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, while 2020 and 2021 yielded just eight podiums as Carlos Sainz managed five upon his arrival last year to replace Vettel.
When new technical regulations arrived at the start of this year though, as did Ferrari’s race-winning prowess, and Leclerc has won two of the first four of this season, giving him a 27-point championship advantage over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
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Having spent much of 2021 working on the new E10 fuel blend and the heavily revised chassis and floor, the Scuderia were confident over the winter that they had taken a step forward, but Elkann warns that converting that into a title success is a different equation entirely.
“We said we’d be competitive, which we are,” he told F1TV.
“From being competitive to winning, it’s like going to the moon or going to Mars. [It’s] extremely difficult.
“We well know that championships are won or lost at the last race, or the last lap, and these are with variables we control and many that we don’t, which is why Formula 1 is such an exciting sport.
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“And we are, as Ferrari, so excited about this challenge.”
Part of the reason for the turn in fortunes was a paradigm shift at the team they saw their mindset change from self-sympathy to galvanisation and a burning desire to win as a team.
“We changed also our culture, from one of guilt to one of accountability, from one of individuals to one of a team,” Elkann explained.
“[We] created a cohesive environment but, more importantly, high ambition with high humility.”
While Leclerc heads the way in the Drivers’ Championship, Ferrari are also 11 points clear of Red Bull in the constructors’ battle after the Milton Keynes side claimed a one-two finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.