With yesterday’s prompt denial, Scuderia Ferrari closed the door on the arrival of Frederic Vasseur as team principal, although several sources from inside Maranello had confirmed the intention to change the top management of the Ferrari Racing Department starting from 1 January.
It all seemed decided, but suddenly there was a 180 degree turn for the ending of a film that should have already been written. A grain of sand jammed the gears and everything stopped. But what happened?
According to Motorsport Italy, it is legitimate to ask whether someone from Maranello (or maybe from Turin) took the trouble to activate the press, not only the Italian one, to damage Fred Vasseur’s prospects, knowing full well that the French manager, currently the Alfa Romeo team principal, had not yet signed a contract with Scuderia Ferrari. A lightning action, after a negotiation which took place over time.
Mattia Binotto boarded the plane that took him to Abu Dhabi having his smartphone in his pocket with a meager tweet that described the news as “totally without foundation.” The Italian engineer will then show up in the Yas Marina pits with an apparent vote of confidence and on Saturday he will take part in the FIA team principals’ press conference ready to defend his position in front of all the international press.
Mattia Binotto will lead the team to defend second place in the Constructors’ championship from a charging Mercedes and to help Charles Leclerc stay ahead of Sergio Perez in the fight for second place in the Drivers’ standings.
The F1-75 could have hoped to win even in Brazil, but the unusual Red Bull “crisis” at Interlagos was not enough to return to the top step of the podium, given that Mercedes showed technical superiority up to the point of scoring a one-two finish with the W13.
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Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz can hope to fight for the race win at Yas Marina if the weekend were to be for once not conditioned by bad luck or serious mistakes, because the F1-75 challenger did not show the usual tire degradation during the Brazilian stints, revealing on the contrary that it was only a pair of tenths away from the silver arrows.
Some believe that the Scuderia’s tweet to deny reports its F1 team boss faces the sack was weak. If they wanted to restore strength to Mattia Binotto, a statement from John Elkann would also have been needed, renewing his trust in the team principal. But the president’s “advisers” had pointed out that there was no need for John to intervene because officially nothing had changed since the (rare) interview with the boss in the Gazzetta dello Sport back at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
And Sauber also showed no signs of life: in Hinwil no one reacted in any way to the… speculation of the press, aligning themselves with the Ferrari trend.
The underdog attitude seems to attracts followers in Maranello. It buys Ferrari time, putting Fred Vasseur’s candidacy on hold, although the Frenchman was already working hard and we will discover the effects of certain moves in the coming days and weeks. Except for Frédéric Vasseur, are there other candidates that shouldn’t be rejected or did John Elkann choose to go ahead with Mattia Binotto?
We have entered an unpredictable phase where everything (or the opposite) can still happen. Mattia Binotto, meanwhile, will lead the technical staff to the completion of project 675, the eagerly awaited 2023 single-seater with which Ferrari will aim to challenge for the 2023 Formula One world title. And perhaps he will explain to the president how he intends to change the racing team by reinforcing those areas that have still shown serious shortcomings.
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