British former racing driver from Scotland, later turned presenter, commentator and journalist, David Coulthard, does not believe Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto will be sacked by the Ferrari top management, despite the overall poor results in the 2022 championship. The Italian side started the current F1 campaign strong, with two race victories for Charles Leclerc in Bahrain and Australia, but since then the Maranello team has not been able to continue the title fight with Red Bull, due to several reliability issues as well as some bad strategic calls during the races.
Given the fact that the Italian side’s issues, often caused by self-destructive decisions, have mounted during the championship, fans and part of the media have called for Mattia Binotto to be removed from his role as Ferrari team principal.
However, Mattia Binotto has been recently backed by Ferrari chairman John Elkann, despite the fact that Italian-American did admit there had been “too many mistakes” made by Ferrari this season.
Now the Ferrari boss has also received words of support from former McLaren and Red Bull driver David Coulthard who pointed out that while some changes may be needed for Scuderia Ferrari, it should not be the team principal:
“I’ve got to believe so,” he explained in an interview for Channel 4 when asked if he believes Mattia Binotto will see out the end of the championship. “Because he’s been part of the team for a long time. He actually is a pretty calm head in what sometimes can be a fairly, you know, emotional environment. I don’t see him spinning the car off into the barriers, I don’t assume he’s head of strategy, any more than his head of reliability when it comes to the engine. Yes, he is the team principal and he has to make strategic decisions on the people that are actually in control of those departments. Those are the decisions first of all that I would see being changed or effecting change in some way before I would look to replace him.” – David Coulthard added.
Mattia Binotto has become Team Principal three years ago, and has pointed out that he does not want to return to the “old path” of changing the staff at every mistake, which proved not to be efficient in the past:
“We do not need to change people, but we certainly need to change some things,” Mattia Binotto explained in a discussion with Martin Brundle for Sky Sports F1 – “The way we are communicating, the way we are getting to the process of making our decisions…changes are required. Adding value may be necessary, adding people as well. But changing people is not a path I want to go through – that’s an old way of addressing issues.”
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The Ferrari boss believes reliability remains the most important aspect which the Maranello team needs to work on:
“Overall, the team did a fantastic job in developing the current car, but still there are situations [that need improving]. The reliability, because the reliability cost us at least a couple of victories and in order to win championships you need to be reliable; race management – strategy and pit-stops, areas of improvement are required. I think during the race weekend you may always do mistakes. I think being perfect is almost impossible, you need to take a decision on the pit wall, but we need to be the best.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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