British former racing driver and current Team Principal of the Red Bull Formula One team, Christian Horner, pointed out that former Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto should be given proper credit for overseeing a “very competitive” F1-75 car in the 2022 Formula 1 season. The Maranello team finished second in both the drivers and constructors’ championship, with four race wins and many more pole positions, making it by far its best F1 campaign since 2019.
However, despite starting the season with the best car on the grid, the Italian side was not able to capitalize on the potential of the F1-75 car and achieved far less than it could have, especially in the first part of the championship. Scuderia Ferrari’s season came undone in part at least due to several poor strategy calls from the pitwall and power unit reliability problems, before failing to keep pace with Red Bull in the development race, as the Austrian side clearly had the fastest car since the summer.
Mattia Binotto has eventually paid the price for the unfortunate outcome and handed in his resignation as Ferrari team principal, after several weeks of speculation that the Ferrari senior management was looking to bring a new person for the job. As a result, in three weeks the Italian manager will leave the company he has worked at for almost three decades.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who was riled by Ferrari in Mattia Binotto’s first year as head of the Ferrari Formula 1 Racing Division amid accusations about the legality of the Maranello power unit, was asked about this situation in an interview for F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast a few days ago and admitted that Mattia Binotto kept the job “longer than I thought” because of the pressure that comes with this role.
However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner feels that Mattia Binotto deserved recognition for his part in helping Scuderia Ferrari return to fighting for pole positions and race wins:
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“I think in all fairness to Mattia, he did a very good job in producing a very competitive car and engine for Ferrari, certainly this year,” the Red Bull man said, in an interview at the FIA prizegiving ceremony. “Obviously they’ve had their moments operationally. He committed a long period of his career and life to Ferrari and I’m sure it must be very difficult for him to leave that team after all of that time. Of course, there’s huge pressure in that team because it’s a national team, effectively, as well as an OEM team. Obviously [there’s] a lot of pressure on that job.” – Christian Horner concluded.
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