F1 | Ferrari, Binotto recalls Marchionne's pressure: "he pushed us to develop gray areas"

Mattia Binotto, protagonist of the podcast Beyond The Grid, discussed among other things the relationship he had with the late Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne. The current team principal of the Cavallino, who under the management of the then Maranello number one played the role of technical director, recalled how he lived those years intensely.

Marchionne took over as head of Cavallino in September 2014, taking over from Luca Montezemolo. Forced by worsening health conditions to leave his role, he died on 25 July 2018 and was replaced by John Elkann.

"The pressure was there, without a doubt – Binotto admitted calmly – This was the hardest thing I had to deal with with him. The pressure was such that you had to always have your cell phone next to you day and night, because if he sent you a WhatsApp, you had to respond within 30 seconds. This is the kind of pressure he was putting you under. If you didn't immediately respond to the text he was sending you, then it was clearly a bad start to the day".

The Italian-Swiss engineer admitted that living with all this was not at all easy: “Living with your phone next to you hasn't been easy. It was his way of applying pressure, making sure he was always awake, always ready to respond. He even wrote to me halfway through the race. Maybe not in the middle of the night, but definitely in the early morning".

Binotto also does not deny that this pressure produced by Marchionne then pushed the team to push itself to the limits of the regulations in 2019, which then gave rise to the subsequent agreement with the FIA ​​for the issue relating to the power unit mounted on the SF90.

"Could be. I think, first of all, that it is part of sport to try to interpret the gray area of ​​the regulations. I think in this respect all the teams are doing it. But then it's what you interpret as gray or not gray. I think obviously there's always a limit that's very borderline and difficult. But yeah, it definitely pushed us a lot to develop the gray areas as much as possible".

From the recent past to the present. The Cavallino TP expressed important words towards CEO Louis Camilleri: “È a completely different type of leadership (from Marchionne). He's a great man. I think I found a friend in Louis, he helps me a lot. He understands the importance of stability, he understands the importance of investing. And normally when you invest the results are not always short term, it is more medium, long term, because you have to invest first and then get the benefit of the same investment. I think he's a great person, a great leader, he delegates a lot. Sends me a message, but response within 30 seconds is not required. At least that makes a lot of difference".