Former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto could have stayed in Maranello as the Chief Racing Team Engineer, effectively taking the position held by David Sanchez at that time, but it was the Italian manager who chose to leave the Scuderia. Let’s review the last period of his long journey in Red and evaluate the possible reasons for this choice, based on information provided by the Italian website formula1.it:
The story of Mattia Binotto at Scuderia Ferrari cannot be limited to the four years in which he served as team principal from 2019 to 2022, replacing Maurizio Arrivabene. The engineer from Lausanne arrived in Maranello in 1995 as a test team engineer, and in 1997, he was promoted to Formula 1 in the dream team led by Michael Schumacher, Luca di Montezemolo, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, and Rory Byrne, which led to Ferrari’s golden era from 2000 to 2004.
In 2007, he became Chief Race Engineer, and in 2009, he first served as Head of Engine and KERS Operations, and later as Deputy Director of the Engine and Electronics department under Eng. Marmorini. The most significant breakthrough came thanks to Sergio Marchionne, who promoted him to Director of the Power Unit department in 2014. Due to the progress made in the competitiveness of the Prancing Horse’s cars, he was further promoted to Technical Director in 2015, replacing James Allison. Following challenging years in which Mercedes’ dominance overshadowed the team’s consistent progress from 2016 to 2019, the “engine gate” controversy of 2020 brought Ferrari down, as the Maranello team has faced a long ordeal marked by a disappointing fifth-place finish that season. But once again, Mattia Binotto managed to lead a path of recovery in terms of performance with the third-place finish in 2021 and the second-place finish in the previous Formula 1 season, which ironically is what weighed most heavily in the complicated end of relations with the Maranello team.
In 2022, Scuderia Ferrari presented an extremely competitive single-seater, taking advantage of the regulatory revolution and focusing on an extreme and somewhat unique project. The F1-75 and Charles Leclerc started the previous season in a dominant manner, but taking two race wins from the first three rounds of the championship, but the illusion of bringing the title back to Maranello vanished already halfway through the season when it became clear that Red Bull had found a significant evolution of their car that better suited the regulatory changes.
The team principal was overwhelmed by controversies, partly due to reliability issues and some strategic mistakes that cost Charles Leclerc points and victories in Monaco, at Silverstone and at the Hungaroring circuit. At the end of the 2022 Formula 1 season, after an uncontrollable wave of rumors and speculation, the confirmation of Mattia Binotto’s resignation arrived. The ensuing chaos was considerable, with Ferrari searching for a replacement, knocking unsuccessfully on important doors (Red Bull and Mercedes).
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In the end, Frederic Vasseur, from Alfa Romeo, took Binotto’s place. The feeling was that a “shake-up” was needed and that the engineer from Lausanne was not suitable for his role due to some evident shortcomings in media communication and driver management, or rather, with that “finger in the face” incident between Mattia Binotto and Charles Leclerc, which revealed the internal tension within the team to the whole world.
After the resignation and the management of the media uproar, Maranello had to navigate through another complicated period because the F1-75 needed significant upgrades to attempt another leap in quality and compete for victories. These upgrades were entrusted to individuals who were “close” to Mattia Binotto and had already begun working on the SF-23 halfway through the previous season. The problem is that the 2023 car, right from the initial tests, seems far from the expected performance, and to further complicate matters, the announcements of more departures gradually came.
First Gino Rosato, a historic figure in the Maranello paddock, then Jonathan Giacobazzi, the executive race manager, and surprisingly at the beginning of the season, David Sanchez, the Head of Vehicle Concept. Just a few weeks ago, Laurent Mekies (sporting director) also confirmed he will leave. It’s a real revolution that has seen the aforementioned “people close to Mattia Binotto,” as Frederic Vasseur explained in a recent interview, progressively leaving Maranello, effectively abandoning a project they had conceived and could have been improved and developed.
At the moment, this revolution seems to have worsened things, with Scuderia Ferrari struggling to attract high-quality new recruits to Maranello and a single-seater that fails to progress, encountering significant issues that limit its potential.
The opinion of Formula 1 experts and the questions that everyone is asking are: Did Ferrari make a mistake in distancing itself from Mattia Binotto? Couldn’t they have offered him the role of technical director or chief racing engineer? The answer, based on what formula1.it has exclusively gathered and reported, is that the position was actually offered to the engineer from Lausanne, even multiple times.
Indeed, Mattia Binotto could have left the highly media-intensive role of team principal to continue working on and improving the 2023 F1 car, but his choice was to leave Maranello altogether.
As for the reasons behind this decision, we can only speculate. The first possibility is that the relationship with the management had become excessively strained to the point of losing necessary mutual trust. The second involves a possible, but unlikely, conflict between him and Charles Leclerc, and finally, the most probable reason: Mattia Binotto wanted to occupy that role and believes he can still do so in another team, as recent rumors seem to confirm.
What we do know for sure is that in Formula 1, to win or dominate, changing just one person is not enough. What is needed is the right planning, a progressive improvement like that of Michael Schumacher’s dream team, which took the time to work and progress from 1996 to 2000. It must be acknowledged that there has been improvement from 2020 to 2022, credited to Mattia Binotto, who, however, paid the price for the immense environmental pressure that he probably wasn’t able to handle. Based on what formula1.it reports, the Italian manager chose to leave Maranello altogether.
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