Scuderia Ferrari’s new team principal, Mattia Binotto, has had just five weeks ahead of the first pre-season testing testing session in Barcelona but his appointment is perhaps the best they have made in recent years. Having been chosen to replace Maurizio Arrivabene on at the beginning of the year, Mattia Binotto takes on the most high-profile management role in the sport, under intense scrutiny and demanding the greatest results. A task compounded by inheriting a Scuderia that has been unruly, skittish and left once more licking its wounds after defeat last season. Yet Ferrari’s decision to go with Binotto was positive and bold, according also to former Scuderia Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who have backed the Maranello team’s new boss.
As a result of failing to win the 2018 Formula 1 title despite having a top car in the first half of the season, Scuderia Ferrari ousted its boss since 2014, Maurizio Arrivabene. After a power struggle, his replacement is Mattia Binotto, the existing and continuing technical boss: “Mattia is a very calm guy. He is one of the people who stays calm even under stress and absorbs the pressure at Ferrari much better than Arrivabene,” former Ferrari driver Massa is quoted by Auto Bild – “But it is a new moment for him. He was never a team principal before. We have to see how he will work because it is an important change. He became the boss but will be on the technical side as well. Speaking the truth, this can be good. I wish the best to him because I know him since I joined Ferrari” – added Felipe Massa who was an 11-time Grand Prix winner with the Reds.
The Brazilian, who joined Ferrari as a 25-year old, believes that promoting Charles Leclerc is a positive step: “For me, what Ferrari is doing with Leclerc is very good. This kid can be a super champion in the future. And I hope and cheer that this can be in a near future.”
Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa’s former Ferrari teammate, agrees that Mattia Binotto is the right man to bring the Maranello team back to the top: “Mattia has shown leadership when he was the technical boss. He will do everything to make Ferrari stronger.” – the Spanish driver concluded.
Ferrari, as with any team, is a complex construction of individuals, that needs to be finely tuned. Management and motivation can be every bit as important as any inspirational drive or design. Where Arrivabene proved unable to coerce his team into success, Binotto, a racer in the Ross Brawn mould, has the credentials to build a Scuderia that dances to a much more harmonious tune.
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