“F1 Is Not on a Pedestal Anymore Within Ferrari”: F1 Team Boss Reveals Prancing Horse Thinks Beyond Premier Racing Series to Expand Its Growth

Ferrari are back to winning ways, just not in F1. The Maranello outfit recorded their first Le Mans victory in over 50 years after winning the centenary edition of the race in 2023. This has led to questions being raised about Ferrari’s priorities at the moment. British Journalist Scott Mitchell Malm reveals that Ferrari is thinking beyond F1 and want to expand its legacy beyond the single-seater open-wheel class.

It has been quite some time since Ferrari has been failing to make an impact in Formula 1. The Scuderia last won a championship in 2008 and have been trophyless since then.

Even after showing some signs of promise during the start of the 2022 season, the hopes faded away pretty quickly after a series of driver errors and strategy mistakes showed that Ferrari have a lot of work left to do.

Amidst all of this, the same Ferrari team has managed to take on the stalwarts of endurance racing. The Prancing Horse managed to cut off Toyota’s Le Mans winning streak to 5 and snatched the victory away from them this year. All of this has raised questions about Ferrari’s commitment to F1.

Ferrari wants to make a mark in Motorsport

Talking on The Race F1 podcast, Mitchell explained that he believes focusing on Le Mans has no direct effect on F1 for Ferrari. This is because the team that takes part in the World Endurance Championship has absolutely no overlap with the F1 team.

He backs up his point further by pointing out that it’s not the same resource or the same pool of engineers that both projects are sourcing from. Therefore it is not the case that to focus on Le Mans, The Scuderia have to take away resources from F1 and are giving them any less.

Mitchell then reminisces about what a certain F1 team principal, which he kept anonymous, told him about the prospect of joining Ferrari. He said, “Their suggestion was to take up the Ferrari job now, in F1, you have to accept that F1 is not on a pedestal anymore within Ferrari.”

“There’s this much bigger strategy at play in terms of making Ferrari even bigger as an automotive manufacturer, expanding its reach,” explains Mitchell. And the way to do this is to focus on the supercars and hypercars of the team.

Winning Le Mans is a direct effect of this. And according to Mitchell, at the moment, the Le Mans project is being given equal importance to the F1 project at Ferrari.

Ferrari’s history in Formula 1

Not everyone, however, agrees with Mitchell’s viewpoint. His colleague Sam Smith was very quick to dispute the claim. He explained that F1 will always be a bigger priority for Ferrari. Since the premier motorsport series reflects the mystique of Ferrari the most, it will be the biggest priority for a while.

However, he quickly explained that this does not mean that the Maranello outfit is not invested in their Le Mans project. He comments that Ferrari CEO John Elkann and F1 driver Charles Leclerc being present at Le Mans shows how important it is for the Scuderia.

But for the fans of a team like Ferrari, which is steeped in F1 history, the expectation will always be winning in F1. Therefore, the Maranello outfit will always have to focus more on the premier class of motorsport.