F1 | Ferrari, goodbye Binotto: four years full of mistakes and just seven victories

Mattia Binotto is no longer the team principal of Ferrari. The news, made official this morning by the Scuderia does not leave us surprised, given that we have been telling you about this turnaround in Maranello's Sports Management for about ten days now. The engineer from Reggio Emilia, born in Lausanne, leaves after 28 seasons full of satisfactions, at least until the end of the 2000s. In the last four Mattia was the leader of the wall, with the meager haul of just seven victories, an FIA investigation concluded with a secret pact regarding the regularity of the Red's power unit in 2019 and unsatisfactory, not to say terrible, driver management, especially over the last year, when Leclerc was effectively put in the way in order not to establish a hierarchy that seemed obvious given the results on the track.

SEEMANCES OF REBIRTH
Yet we had Mattia praised at the beginning of the season. Wrong, obviously, but the victory in Melbourne had given Ferrari that semblance of rebirth that was so desired with the arrival of the new technical regulations. A long-awaited 2022 for the Red Bull, the year of the return to success, as said by Binotto himself in the summer of 2021, only to then recant as this season went more and more in favor of Red Bull. The Ferrari team principal has an important communication gap, something that cannot and must not be missing for those who command the Scuderia's wall. Of course, and this should not be forgotten, Mattia seemed alone, with a management that more often than not demonstrated a certain detachment from track situations, apart from a few interviews given here and there but without making much of an impact. What we understood from Elkann's few words in recent periods is that the feeling with Binotto diminished as one negative result followed another.

President John Elkann in conversation with Carlos Sainz (XPB)

2022, which started with two victories and a second place in three races, had left everyone speechless, in a positive sense, but we would never have imagined such a sudden downgrade of the F1-75, which was at a standstill with developments by the team's own admission principal, and those few who arrived were unable to compete with the disarming evolution of Red Bull and the sudden rise of Mercedes, which was more than a second behind Ferrari at the beginning of the year. A power unit as much vaunted as "SuperFast" and which then seemed more suitable for a barbecue on May XNUMXst, and therefore weakened in recent weeks to avoid further embarrassment.

LECLERC'S DISFAVORABLE STRATEGIES
Last but not least, in the chaos of a hands-off strategic direction in recent years, we arrive to the strategies that have effectively excluded Leclerc from the world fight even before Ferrari finished competing with Red Bull over the car's performance. In Monte Carlo the home driver, who started from pole position, was fed to Red Bull, but the drop of the drops obviously concerns Silverstone, when Leclerc, first without problems with a few laps to go, was left out under the Safety Car on used hard tyres, while Sainz, Hamilton and Perez behind him returned to fit new soft tyres. At that point Charles was easy prey for his opponents, with Carlos victorious and the Monegasque only fourth. Hence the famous Binotto's finger towards his pilot, a little finger that caused a sensation. What is astounding, however, is the extreme defense of this strategic decision so as not to establish a hierarchy between the riders which at that moment, and throughout the season, was all too clear. Binotto, evidently given his statements, didn't notice anything.

Leclerc's disappointment after Silverstone (XPB)

NOT JUST BINOTTO
The team principal's farewell to Ferrari is also the result of results not obtained on the track due to gross errors on the part of Inaki Rueda and the entire strategic team, which has clearly been in difficulty for too many years now. Putting in a man, probably Vasseur (from January), and then always making the same fools will not lead to anything new. It is therefore clear that there is also more to change if we really want to return to competing at high levels and with increasingly fierce rivals eager not to leave even crumbs to those who try to be competitive. There is therefore a need for a union of intent, with John Elkann clearly under stress lately also due to the Juventus issue, of course, but Ferrari needs a reorganization from various points of view, perhaps also from the technical side, and this is where a new name could come into play, perhaps not too much to be honest, for the future of Maranello Sports Management. But we'll talk about this in more depth in the next episodes.