Former Formula One sporting director Cesare Fiorio, who debuted in 1989 in his top position for the Maranello team, with the hard task of making the team competitive again after some disappointing seasons in the mid-1980s, believes that current team principal Mattia Binotto now has the task of ending the turmoil that has derailed the 2022 world champion championship hopes of Charles Leclerc and the Italian side, after a positive start to the season and despite the solid pace of the F1-75 this year.
The comments come after another poor race for Scuderia Ferrari, who not for the first time this year have lost valuable points with Charles Leclerc due to some bad strategy decisions, as several pundits marvel at the ways in which Binotto-led Ferrari has upset its star driver.
“I feel really sorry for Charles,” said Russian Formula 1 commentator for Match TV, Alexey Popov – “I am often told that I root against him, but it isn’t true. Actually, I have caught myself really wanting him to win in the past few races. I haven’t felt like that for a long time, because I’m struggling to understand how he can remain positive.”
At the same time, Alexey Popov feels that the lack of consistency and the many problems shown by the Ferrari pitwall could become so extreme that Charles Leclerc may take into consideration the possibility of leaving Ferrari: “But it is clear that he has nowhere to go,” the Russian said – “He is a member of the Ferrari academy, there are no powerful sponsors behind him and no places in other top teams, so apparently he just has to stay quiet and endure it.” – he added.
The Italian media was also dismayed about Ferrari’s 2022 Formula 1 season, as the Maranello team has managed to lose the world titles even before the summer break, despite having the fastest car at most tracks this year. Tuttosport newspaper noted: “The car is there, the driver is there – but where is the team?”
Recently, former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa told Sky Italia: “Obviously Charles is unhappy right now, but he needs to be patient. Swearing about it isn’t going to help and the team will remind him that he has also made mistakes. He has a car capable of winning, so he needs to be patient.”
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Former Ferrari Sporting Direct Cesare Fiorio, however, is still confident Mattia Binotto can turn things around and believes he deserves the benefit of the doubt for having brought the Maranello team back to being able to challenge for race wins in 2022: “He was a great engineer and now he has another job,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport after the Hungarian GP – “It is clear that there is still something to fix and it is his job to do it now.”
Despite the many problems Ferrari encountered in 2022 so far, Cesare Fiorio was impressed with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, pointing out that the Ferrari drivers deserve no blame for the difficult situation: “Ferrari has two drivers who I consider to be among the five best drivers in the world. Both can win and score points and, personally, I would never change them,” he concluded.
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