The only certainty in Ferrari is that there is no certainty. Nine days after the end of the 2022 Formula 1 championship and a hundred before the start of the next one, the question relating to the succession of Mattia Binotto is still on the table. The Italian manager’s resignation has been accepted by the senior management as officially announced on Thursday morning.
It was a tumultuous day in the world of Ferrari. On Monday evening there was the shocking news of the Juventus senior management and board members leaving the club, including president Andrea Agnelli and former Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene.
An unexpected move, which perhaps explains the apparent lack of involvment from John Elkann who is managing the fate of the football club before putting focusing on Scuderia Ferrari. But these are hypotheses that at the moment cannot be confirmed with factual counter-evidence. The fact is that postponing the choice of the new Ferrari team principal until the new year shows that there are frenetic and convulsive moments in the chambers of red power.
What is certain is that since yesterday, November 29, 2022, Scuderia Ferrari no longer has a number one for “sporting things”. Therefore, hypotheses about a name that could replace the Lausanne manager came automatically and inevitably. And many, too many named have been reported by the media.
The most natural solution, that is for Mattia Binotto to remain in his place, completely disappeared with the official statement on Tuesday morning. Time is short and the 2023 Formula One championship is upon us. So a quick “switch” is needed. Then there are two more comfortable options: the first leads directly to Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari, who could fill the position ad interim. He is not a technician like Mattia Binotto, but an expert in financial matters and a skilled manager of human resources. A figure who would also have a strong role on the tables of motorsport politics. So the pedigree would be well suited to the position. But it would still be a pro tempore solution. And Maranello is looking for stability.
Then the other name that comes to mind is that of Frédéric Vasseur. A figure that is talked about a lot, perhaps too much. “Whoever enters the conclave as pope, comes out as a cardinal”. The maxim could be more true than ever. Sauber’s current team principal has proven experience but brings with him divisive concepts: many feel that he would like to put Charles Leclerc at the center of the project by assigning the role of second driver to Carlos Sainz. Today, Ferrari needs stability, not yet another civil war between rival parts. Perhaps this is what is holding back the arrival of the French executive manager who, mind you, is by no means a far-fetched hypothesis.
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And then there are the dream scenarios. Those ideas imagined in a state of semi-consciousness that stimulate the mind but which is almost impossible to make true. The first looks like a boutade and comes directly from the land of tulips. The Dutch media report that the Ferrari leadership, in the phase of consultations necessary to choose the team principal of the Maranello team, put forward none other than the “Spice Boy” Christian Horner, by offering him a huge salary and a certain freedom of maneuver that in Maranello is always much praised but little applied.
Of course Horner would have been an amazing move because he has unique managerial skills and knows how to act in the power games which are very important in Formula 1. And the very soft sentence on the infringement of the financial rules is a clear demonstration of this. The feeling is that it was the English manager who got the better of Ben Sulayem who didn’t seem all that resolute in managing this matter. But that’s another story and not of interest for our purposes. Horner, to close, seems to have listened, smiled, and declined. Still many more great challenges await him together with Red Bull. The desire not to give up on the Milton Keynes team was then communicated, leaving Ferrari to grapple with its ruminations on a still uncertain future.
Sometimes certain mental schemes work in a very elementary way: think of a man who has made the team great, you see that he has finished his mandate in the institution for which he works, you intersect these elements with the Mattia Binotto affair and the 2+2 clicks into automatic. Too bad that whoever fueled the Ross Brawn suggestion didn’t deal with… Ross Brawn.
“My time with Formula One is coming to an end. I will miss the involvement I had, as well as the camaraderie and friendships that are forged. I am satisfied with the point we have reached” sadly admitted the British engineer who continued as follows, speaking of the work carried out on behalf of Liberty Media, placing a heavy stone on the grave of Ferrari’s illusions:
“Now is the right time to retire, we have done the bulk of the work and are now in a period of consolidation. There is a new car on the way in 2026, but it will be in four years, which is quite a long way off for me, so it better be the next group of people to take over.”
“I think I’m leaving Formula 1 in a great place. I have loved almost every minute of my 46 year career and have been lucky enough to work with many great teams, great drivers and great people. I wouldn’t change anything. Now I will be watching Formula 1 from my sofa, cheering and cursing like an F1 fan, glad the sport is in such a great place and has such a great future. A toast to the great races“. Raise the glasses for an extraordinary career, for a column of the GP Circus. A story spanning several decades that ended here. With all due respect to those who have nurtured hope in a slightly too risky way.
With this writing we intended to underline how smoky the air that surrounds the Ferrari is. To date we proceed by hypothesis because concrete news has not leaked. What is certain is that now the leaders have a hot potato in their hands. A fluid situation that intersects with that of Juventus which we alluded to earlier. The two sports brands of the Exor group are in full turmoil and the decisive intervention of the president John Elkann is needed more than ever this time. Will he be able to do it?
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