Division at Ferrari, Binotto considers resignation

Reports are mounting in Italy that Mattia Binotto’s ‘divorce’ from Scuderia Ferrari management is a matter of days or even hours, but the Italian team appears divided over the need to replace its race director.

After reports from the Italian “La Gazzetta dello Sport” last week that John Elkann made the decision to replace Mattia Binotto next January, i.e. before the start of the 2023 season, the newspaper “Corriere della Sera” is now talking about one “Divorce”. The two sides will take place before 2022 comes to an end.

But as Corriere writes, it’s not Ferrari who wants to remove Binotto, it’s Binotto who is thinking of leaving. According to the report, the Italian is said to have told friends he doesn’t want his contract – which expires at the end of 2023 – to expire because he doesn’t have the full support he would like from Ferrari chairman John Elkann, which has been met with harsh criticism the performance of the Scuderia reaped.

On the contrary, “La Gazzetta dello Sport” wrote earlier last week that it was Elkan’s wish to remove Binotto from the team’s leadership in January. And no safe conclusion can be drawn from the words of Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari.

Enigmatically, Vigna said: “I can’t be happy with second place because second place is first loser. We’ve made progress so I’m happy with the way we’re going, I’m just not happy with second place. I think the team.” needs to make some improvements over time”.

However, at Maranello, the team are reportedly at odds over whether or not to replace Mattia Binotto at the helm of Scuderia. On the one hand, the Italian is taking the stinging criticism of failing to stage the team’s first title in 15 years with an extremely fast single-seater, this year’s F1-75.

On the other hand, however, he has to be credited – as credited to him by his supporters – for taking over the 2019 team from Mauricio Arrivabene in a state of decline and managing to transform it from 6th place into the 2020 championship one Star that year by creating the fastest absolute speed car for most of the season. For the first time since 2008, the Scuderia has asserted a championship claim again this year.

In addition, many engineers supporting Binotto believe that the Italian is simply the best solution available. They are unconvinced by Frédéric Vasseur, Alfa Romeo’s current racing director, who is the front runner for his successor – they believe the Frenchman’s motorsport record is not enough to lead Ferrari, that he failed miserably with Renault and with him Alfa Romeo/Sauber has achieved nothing remarkable.

On the other hand, Vasseur has close ties with the Todt family, as politics is always an important factor in decisions at Maranello: with former Scuderia race director and FIA President Jean Todt and his son Nicolas Todd, who happens to be Leclerc’s manager.

Leclerc spent a year at Alfa Romeo (2018) under Vasseur and is said to hold him in high esteem while – according to the recent publication of French ‘L’ Equipe’ – he avoids any kind of communication with their Binotto in recent months, since the British GP last June.

Alongside Wasser, there is also speculation that Ferrari’s – also rumored – approach to the role has already been rejected by both McLaren race director Andreas Siedl (and former multi-champion with Porsche in endurance racing) and Alpha Tauri director Franz Tost and Tost’s predecessor Gerhard Berger.

Also, as “Corriere della Sera” writes, “Even those who dislike Binotto understand that this new turmoil could have a negative impact on the dynamics of the car in 2023.”.

For all these reasons, Maranello therefore has quite a few engineers whose turn it is to improve the reliability of the Italian engine and strengthen the strategy department, which in any case needs the time-consuming experience of the championship, are needed rather than replacing Binotto. Perhaps Vigna is among them, according to one of the many possible readings of his words.

Among them, Binotto’s supporters and the movements that need improvement, is certainly Carlos Sainz. That’s what the Spaniard said characteristically “Rome wasn’t built in a day”which supports the need to give Ferrari time to build.

“I’m not going to get into a conversation about what I like and don’t like” said the 27-year-old Spaniard. “I only know from my experience that Rome wasn’t built in a day and you have to think about where we’re coming from. If you look at that, the progress we’ve made as a team in the last two seasons is huge, and the team is working well.

We practice very strict self-criticism behind closed doors. To the public, we protect each of us individually, and we have a notorious culture of non-accountability that we naturally want to protect everyone with. I think we’re doing well.

On the other hand, we made some mistakes this year and we want to be a better team. But like I said, that doesn’t happen from one year to the next and we have to keep improving. I think in the second half of the season we were a bit better in everything – we just didn’t develop the car enough.”.

Discussing the improvement steps at Ferrari, Sainz continued: “I think it’s very simple things. We have to run the races better, for example at the starts. This year we had an inherent problem with the car that didn’t allow us to start well.”

The second point is of course the strategy, making the right decisions and putting the right tires on the car on Sunday. That’s what we’re working on for the new year, and then there’s evolution [του αυτοκινήτου]. If we want to beat Mercedes and Red Bull, we have to develop it faster than them.”concluded the Spaniard.