Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has confirmed that Mattia Binotto called to let him know about his decision to step down from his role as Ferrari team principal at the end of 2022.
A few days ago, the Italian side officially confirmed that Mattia Binotto’s time with Ferrari would end after almost three decades.
Mattia Binotto was promoted to the role of Ferrari team principal before the start of the 2019 Formula 1 campaign, as he took over from Maurizio Arrivabene with the clear goal of winning the titles in the following years.
After two difficult seasons, Scuderia Ferrari started the 2022 championship with the fastest car on the grid, but the Maranello team was not able to capitalise on the speed of the F1-75 car in the first part of the season due to power unit reliability issues and a series of wrong strategy decisions which eventually cost Mattia Binotto his job, with the Scuderia’s senior management becoming increasingly frustrated.
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Earlier this evening, Charles Leclerc was invited to the FIA end of season prize giving gala, and was of course asked about Mattia Binotto handing in his resignation. The Monegasque thanked the Italian manager for the years they spent working together in Maranello, while also pointing out that it was now time to “focus on the future”.
“Mattia called me to announce that he will stop which I respect his decision and I can only thank him,” – Charles Leclerc replied. “He believed in me right from the start, he extended me with a very long contract and before being team principal he was also inside the Scuderia for many, many years and he has contributed to the success the team had in the past years. I wish him the best and obviously now it’s now up to us to focus on the future, try and take the right choices in order to be a bit more of a challenge to Red Bull next year.” – the Ferrari added.
Charles Leclerc did not want to comment on the possible replacement of Mattia Binotto, with his former team boss at Sauber, Frederic Vasseur considered in pole position to become the man in charge of the Ferrari Racing Department:
“No. I won’t comment on that,” he added. “Obviously it’s also not my decision. John [Elkann] and Benedetto [Vigna] are going to take the decision. We are just trying to focus our job on the simulator, with the team in order to have the best race car possible for next year but the decision will be done by them.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.
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