F1 | Haas Background: Was Hulkenberg Pushed By Vasseur?

It’s not a bolt from the blue, although nothing has been planned. Times and methods are typical of Ferrari which seems unprepared in the difficult transition phases. Maranello allows Mattia Binotto to leave Ferrari with military honors, that is to say with the agreed resignation, but nothing is official yet. This time the silence is not accompanied by a denial to the press.

The meeting with the top management of Cavallino, John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna, took place immediately after returning from Abu Dhabi, the epilogue of a season that earned Cavallino second place in the Constructors’ championship and the role of vice-champion of the world of Charles Leclerc. Mattia Binotto comes out defeated, after having the illusion that Ferrari could fight for the two titles until the end, being able to count on a very competitive start to the championship.

The F1-75 was already mature. The result of two years of study, while the opponents Red Bull and Mercedes had been engaged in an exhausting battle for the 2021 iris. The rocket start of the redhead had hinted that it could be the right season. Then Ferrari deflated like a soufflé: reliability problems, serious strategy errors associated with pilot mistakes and slow pit stops ruined the picture.

And if we add to this a change of racing rules dictated by Mercedes and signed by the FIA ​​under the guise of safety which has forced the single-seaters to be lifted off the ground, penalizing the F1-75 in particular, a political weakness of Ferrari also emerges at the table of decisions.

The Scuderia has been guilty of having suffered a decline for which even the place of honor in the world championship was judged by Benedetto Vigna as a defeat.

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Corriere dello Sport, signed by Fulvio Solms, came out today with an interesting background that shows how the delegitimization of Mattia Binotto was already underway. Gunther Steiner, Haas team principal, chose Nico Hulkenberg as second driver instead of the jubilant Mick Schumacher, saying no to Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman, the two candidates proposed by Ferrari for what seemed to be a seat in the Cavallino availability.

Haas chose Hulkenberg, a driver who happens to be influenced by Frederic Vasseur. According to the Corriere dello Sport, Steiner did not create any problems by going against the wishes of the Scuderia, because the Alfa Romeo team principal would have arrived in Maranello as team principal and would not have broken the close ties with the American team so rooted in Italy .

And nothing will happen, we add, if Simone Resta, current Haas technical director, once the 2023 single-seater is finished, returns to Ferrari from the “loan” to assume technical responsibility for the Gestione Sportiva. The pawns of a game that is still in progress move slowly…