Last week Scuderia Ferrari announced some changes to the organization chart, with Mattia Binotto distancing himslef from some responsibilities to return to full-time technical director, and closely follow the development of the 2022 Formula 1 car.
Ferrari thus confirmed the rumors of the last few weeks that indicated Mattia Binotto wanted to personally follow the 2022 project. In addition to alternating in the role of team principal with Laurent Mekies, he delegated the commercial part to Nicola Boari.
A decision that is a response to one of the harshest criticism made to John Elkann last year. In fact, together with the decision not to have revolutionized the team after the disappointing 2020 Formula 1 season, he was accused of not having hired a new technical director when Mattia Binotto replaced Maurizio Arrivabene back in 2019 .
Ferrari seemed determined to solve this problem, with Mattia Binotto who had announced plans to work only as team principal. As his successor there was talk of an ongoing negotiation with Andy Cowell then denied, or contacts with James Key that have not found any positive feedback.
The situation changed at the end of last year. In fact, Binotto did not go to Turkey and Bahrain to focus on the SF21 just as he did in 2017-2018 when he was only technical director, and in some races he was not present to work at Maranello on the developments which were taken to the track.
Just thinking about those two championships, this decision should not be seen as a mistake. If Mattia Binotto did not do well as team principal, no one can deny that when he was appointed technical director by Sergio Marchionne, Ferrari with the SF70H and SF71H fought for title with Mercedes.
A first important moment will take place in a few weeks at the Sakhir pre-season testing session, where we will understand whether Ferrari can redeem itself in 2021. The real test, however, will take place next year, when the goal is to give Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz a car capable of winning, and bring the title back to Maranello.
