That the separation between Matthias Binotto and the Ferrari is done now seems to be able to take it for granted. Abu Dhabi’s statements had already seemed to be denied in half and the rumors arriving from the corridors of Maranello appear unequivocal, with only a short time and the definition of directly personal parameters of the almost former Ferrari Team Principal to make the official announcement wait. What will happen will certainly not be a secondary step for the Scuderia, which will lose one of its men reference for years, well before he became the manager of GeS, and therefore has before him, by force of circumstances, big changes. But who will carry them forward? We don’t necessarily want to defend Binotto’s work, but it’s hard not to doubt that it is precisely this the right moment to start a half-revolution in the Ferrari house. The disheveled Italian-Swiss engineer (he will forgive us for the slightly irreverent title on his unequivocal hairdo) became Team Principal in 2019, with a controversial season marked by a SF90 without downforce but with an engine far too powerful. And then the secret agreementthe incredibly weakened Power Unit ei two years of purgatory (which in the original plans was to be only one, doubled with the pandemic and with the consequent postponement of the introduction of the new regulations). Until you get to the season just ended. Of course, the premises for the first Grands Prix this year certainly did not seem like those for a year of the records of Max Verstappen and Red Bull, but, from what we know, the awareness of the fragility of the Power Unit for this season he had pushed Binotto to an important one caution in defining the seasonal goalsbasically speaking of a return to competitiveness and victory, waiting to resolve the problems of the engine and to introduce oneself in 2023 with no fears and at the same time no more excuses. It would therefore, in our opinion, have been interesting to see the end of this whole processwith the fulfillment of a cycle that started from afar and was now one step away from being judged only via the track, given the disappearance of all the arguments so far brought to justify the non victories: the “young team”, the increase in power paid for with reliability and all the other things “to understand”. Only the last step would be missing to understand if the project, which he had the strong personal imprint of his Team Principal, was to be considered a failure or had any hope of reaching the finish line of world title. Apparently, however, it was decided to do not wait and to close immediately, but, at the same time, with the impression that there is no idea how, and above all from who, restart.
This is the aspect that we find most worrying for the future of the red. Mattia Binotto’s personality is strong, masked by a calm speech and composed manner, and in recent years he has undoubtedly shaped the team and the project according to his wishes. It was certainly not all gold, and we certainly saw it too many weaknesses of the Binotto management. There political weakness, for example, which led to the introduction of the Technical Directive 39 and then to the modification of the regulations for 2023, has been quite penalizing for Ferrari. Likewise the protection not only external (which would also be correct) but also internal of what was happening in the strategy department appeared not a sign of improvement it’s a human management not particularly happy with Charles Leclerc he risked seriously undermining the confidence of what is currently the top rider for the future of the red. Not to mention, of course, all the technicians who for incompatibility have left the team, given the edgy personality of Binotto, which also emerged in some of his attitudes towards journalists. All big problems, it is clear, but that to be solved they need one new personalityjust as strong, capable, ready and with a clear and defined project aheadwhile the impression is that Binotto’s exit simply leads to a leap in the dark and that this personality is ready there isn’t. Elkann’s words, when he referred to the 2026 as the year within which Ferrari wants to return to the title, take on a clearer meaning today, with the underlying idea of a post-Binotto reform process which, it will inevitably require time. But time is just one of the things that Ferrari it has less, with a fan base that has been waiting for the title for the past 15 years, and Leclerc who will hardly be willing to give up fighting for the championship for much longer in order to remain with the vestiges of Maranello. Not only that, the working basis for this technical cycle, until 2026, it has now been thrown away, we start again from the work done which will evolve over the next 3 seasons. And then perhaps it would have made more sense wait until 2023 to understand if there really is hope of completing the process, or if we have to wait for the next technical cycle, and at that point lay the foundations for building the new team starting from there.
The choice therefore seems to come from human issuespersonal, temperamental, worn out over time and reached the point of no return, even against logic and also, above all in the absence of a ready alternative and especially valid. In conclusion, the problem is not so much Binotto’s departure as the fact that it appears as a gesture deriving precisely from human issues, and in business as in Formula 1 (as if they were different things) human and unreasoned choices do not is that they never worked much.
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