Each has its own style: Stefano Domenicali he said goodbye to the Ferrari over a pizza (now I can’t remember whether with ham, mushrooms or both) shared with a friend in Castelnuovo Rangone. “I resign” his phrase quoted at the time “so as not to give him the satisfaction of killing me”. Marco Mattiacci’s greeting (reviewed on the starting grid in Abu Dhabi, who knows what to do) was in some ways more stormy but widely announced, given that the arrival of Maurice Arrivabene. Who, when his time came, tiptoed out of GeS a few days before Christmas, leaving a moving and sibylline message for myself and a set of cactus in lysergic colors in the office that he never wanted to see again. The last act of the had just been consummated head-to-head which saw him opposed to Mattia Binotto and John Elkann had chosen (his words) the stability of the technical part. Although I suspect that Louis Camilleri, then CEO of the Cavallino, had long ago unloaded his former colleague in Phillip Morris, allowing himself to be convinced by Binotto’s projects.
And now it’s Mattia’s turn. Ferrari does not deny itself, closing a cycle ahead of time. But compared to its predecessors, the Reggiano Bifronte (another of its many nicknames) benefits from a ‘slide’ which not even at the Aquapark. In the last few days in Gestione Sportiva we have continued to work as if nothing had changed. And in fact, nothing will change for a while, at least according to this morning’s company press release. The last paragraph sounds a little creepy: “The process to identify the new Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari begins now, which should end in the new year”. Hopefully it is the process and not the team principal that ends, but there is no set date: and that “start now” reaffirms that, up to now, there have been no decisive steps. First we dismiss Binotto, then we find him a successor.
It is clear that Ferrari is not obliged to reveal its submarine moves to the world. As well as Benedict Vigna, the managing director, is not required to tell what his real relationship was with the non-delegating executive. No press release will ever report the minutes of the post-Hungary meeting, in which Vigna, they tell me, asked Mattia curtly “why were we the only ones on the track with hard tyres?” and left without waiting for an answer. No one will quibble about the absence of a word of greeting for Binotto from the Presidency: J.Elkann, we all know, is now busy on another front and with other resignations, those en bloc of the Juventus CDA. But one consideration, trivial as you like, should be made: among the duties of a manager, in this case of a team principal, there is that of prepare a line of succession. Arrivabene had done it, even identifying a name (which I won’t tell you because I never knew it).
Evidently the last TP didn’t do it, perhaps too busy arranging the crocodiles in the moat around his chair. He is a corporate evil and an Italian evil, but doing so does not help Ferrari. Instinctively, at the first rumors of closure of the relationship with Mattia, everyone turned their gaze outside: Ross Brawn arrives (another recent resignation), Horner arrives, Vasseur or Santa Claus arrives. We look at the competition because the hypothesis of an internal redevelopment, as happened with the Todt-Domenicali relay, is not considered credible. The second in the hierarchical line, after Binotto, would have been Laurent Mekies, who, if desired, would also have experience in the FIA, useful for a TP, but as far as I know it has never been taken into consideration. And then there are the synergies with the satellite teams: the Sauber operation is smoky, relations with Haas are more linear. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 2023 there was movement in both directions, to and from GeS, but we always talk about technicians and staff on the wall. And in the meantime, Ferrari will go on until the end of the year, as initially planned, with a de facto ousted team principal but with interim command functions. Perhaps it will be good for the ego of the person concerned, less so for the team. I don’t think we’ll get to the start of the 2023 season with this situation, but I also wouldn’t want the hypothesis of a pro tempore Benedetto Vigna team principal taking shape. That is not, I allow myself to say, his job.
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