Copyright dailymail
Ferrari chairman John Elkann has appeared to take a dig at Lewis Hamilton, insisting his drivers should 'talk less' and focus on performing after the seven-time world champion admitted his Ferrari dream had become 'a nightmare'. Hamilton, who left Mercedes after 12 years for a dream move to the Italian team this year, is sixth in the drivers' standings with three races left in the season. Both he and team-mate Charles Leclerc failed to finish the Brazilian Grand Prix at the weekend, and Hamilton told Sky Sports after the race: 'This is a nightmare, and I have been living it for a while. The flip between the dream of driving for this amazing team and the nightmare of the results we have had, the ups and downs, it's challenging. His boss, though, has ordered him to remain tight-lipped. Reflecting on the weekend, Elkann praised those working behind the scenes, but took aim at his drivers. 'Brazil was a huge disappointment,' Elkann said, via The Times. 'If we look at the Formula One championship, we can say that our mechanics are winning the championship with their performance and everything they've done on the pitstops. 'If we look at our engineers, there's no doubt that the car has improved. If we look at the rest, it's not up to par. And we certainly have drivers who it's important that they focus on driving and talking less, because we still have important races ahead of us and it's not impossible to get second place.' Hamilton, 40, has not made it to the podium in his first season at the Scuderia and is 64 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc but is determined not to walk out early on his £60million-a-year deal as he searches for a record-busting eighth world title. He is banking on next season's major regulation change suiting him and the team. The track legend started third on the grid in Mexico a fortnight ago – his best qualifying performance in red – yet finished eighth after being penalised by the stewards for cutting a corner as he duelled with Max Verstappen. In Brazil, meanwhile, he qualified only 13th, before retiring from the race. Asked about a new deal, Hamilton said: 'I have a pretty long contract. Normally when you do a contract it is the year out that you start to talk about it, so I am a bit far from that point.' After the race, meanwhile, speaking to Viaplay, he said: 'It would be wrong to say there are no positives at all. If you look at Charles' performance in qualifying, it shows the car does have some pace in it. 'But we are just really having to fight through those hardships at the moment. I believe there is something extraordinary up ahead in my life and in my destiny.
