Ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto operational at Alpine starting from September

Mattia Binotto – Alpine: the countdown has begun
During the weekend in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, which concluded the first part of the 2023 Formula 1 championship season, Alpine practically cleared out its ‘top management’ for on-track operations in F1. The French team, in fact, terminated its collaboration with Alan Permane, Pat Fry (who joined Williams), and Otmar Szafnauer just a few days before the CEO change from Laurent Rossi to Philippe Krief.

Bruno Famin has been appointed as the interim head of the team, but according to f1i.autojournal.fr, his ‘reign’ will be very short. Mattia Binotto, the former team principal and managing director of Scuderia Ferrari, who resigned in December, one year before the contract’s expiration scheduled for the end of 2023, is ready to take the reins at Alpine after the gardening leave period that he, like all colleagues changing teams in the world of F1, must observe.

Mattia Binotto’s stoppage period could be less than 12 months, as sources in France predict that the Reggio Emilia engineer will become operational at Alpine as early as September based on agreements being made by all parties involved in the negotiations in recent weeks. After visiting the F1 paddock at Silverstone in Great Britain, Mattia Binotto was spotted again in Belgium at Spa, not during the race weekend but during the Pirelli tests following the Grand Prix. In terms of his position, the Italian manager will not simply be a team principal, and his mandate will be quite extensive.

The former Ferrari pit wall boss will immediately have his hands full politically. Alpine is trying to convince the FIA to intervene on the power unit built in Viry-Chatillon, as at this moment, the French engine is the least performant of the four present in Formula 1 (Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Honda). The Federation has opened up to this possibility at the end of the F1 Commission meeting held on a Friday in Spa-Francorchamps full of significant events. However, Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes, has emphasized that different measures (such as intervening on the flow meter) from granting more hours of work on the dynamometer for Alpine would, in fact, introduce a sort of BoP (Balance of Performance) in Formula 1.

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