Binotto’s goodbye: Right or wrong?

Ferrari decided to dismiss Mattia Binotto, or well… “accept his resignation”, as they wanted to sell. However, the truth is that the Swiss-born engineer will not continue to lead Ferrari, and what should be more worrying for those from Maranello, he will not continue with the team. It becomes a piece that every team wants to have in their ranks. He left, packing his bags after 28 years of service with the ‘Prancing Horse’ shield on his chest. Mattia is a man of the house who knows every corner of the factory and all its employees like the back of his hand. And in turn, a top quality technician, far from the marketing or company management profiles that are usually chosen for this type of challenge.

Mattia is for Ferrari a manager capable of understanding any part of the car creation and development process, your address and the steps to follow. No one needed to explain to him because he himself knew how to interpret the data. This knowledge can be a great step forward for Scuderia. But in the position of top management and responsibility, Mattia Binotto had to face other battles and excel in the tasks of a boss. The politics of Formula 1 is one of them. And of course, the difficult decision making.

Regarding politics, Mattia Binotto has never shown the strength and personality of other bosses like Toto Wolff or Christian Horner. He is not remembered for a punch on the table that changed the course of events or a reminder of Ferrari’s importance in F1. He did not raise his voice, for example, after the poor Red Bull allowed the 2021 spending ceiling to be exceeded.

But let’s go to the last point mentioned above, making difficult and transcendental decisions. A boss must manage the resources of the company he leads in the best way to achieve a goal. That is, to make things work by maximizing everyone’s potential. He was never an authoritarian boss and when things went wrong, he failed to exercise that discretionary power to put an end to wrongs. We identify the many problems Ferrari have had this year with approach and pit stops. Changes are lacking in these departments.

When something isn’t working, you have to change it. It’s not fair to ask them to do it better next time. Perhaps he believed in his people, but the mistakes were repeated too many times and that made the Italian press nervous, with more and more criticism as the mistakes were made. And those criticisms strained the morale of the owners. But there are no changes. He did not fire anyone or carry out restructurings. He defended his team and encouraged him to do better. But in many cases, that’s not enough. And less than Ferrari.

It was also heavily blamed in the Italian press for the “mismanagement” of its pilots. In Italy, Leclerc was asked to take precedence over Sainz and Charles to be the leader. Binotto didn’t ‘read’ for any of them and Charles and his entourage became desperate. But few underline the confidence he gave Carlos at a key and difficult moment for the man from Madrid. In his adaptation to the car of new rules far from Sainz’s driving style, he always believed in Carlos and the Spaniard agreed with him in his excellent level at the end of the year, showing himself to be fast and confidence in his car. Now, from that base, Carlos will have to fight everything from scratch in 2023.

With that management of drivers, Mattia likes to ‘wet’ a bit, so it affected him in some races.. I remember Silverstone, for example, with Sainz at the front of a Charles begging for passage on the first batch of tyres. Instead of instructing Leclerc to pass so he could try to shoot and everyone do their own races, he instructed Carlos to stop earlier in the pits, which damaged the Spaniard’s second stint. There is nothing wrong with sending orders at important moments. That is not synonymous with prioritizing one or the other. But he wants to avoid any controversy. Perhaps, Mattia wanted so much to protect his pilots and his employees, that in the end, he was unable to protect himself. However, no matter how big Binotto bet on Charles at the start, the Monegasque was never going to have an option against Max in the second half of the year. That is true.

The Ferrari context ended up forming an explosive cocktail. Ferrari hasn’t won in so many years and that’s why the Italians don’t have the patience they need. Let’s not forget that Jean Todt’s highly successful project also took time to come to fruition. This, along with pressure from the press and tifosi, ended with Binotto exiting. In another set, maybe it’s different. It’s definitely different. But it’s a Ferrari.

The decision

Pros and cons

To assess whether the dismissal of Binotto was a success or a mistake, two questions must be asked: What made him leave? Does Ferrari gain more than it loses in this decision?

If the answer to the first question is the fact that Binotto did not prioritize Leclerc as team leader, this is a mistake. But maybe it’s for reasons we don’t know. Perhaps the data for the 2023 car is not as good as we think. Only at Ferrari do they know the exact answer.

More obvious is the answer to the second question. As with any decision, Ferrari had to make a list of pros and cons before deciding on Binotto’s departure.

As for the ‘pros’, we can consider the arrival of a more managerial profile that does not hesitate to make decisions and to reorganize dysfunctional departments. But for it to bear fruit, it will take time. I can’t think of more positive points than he might be a more politically dominant person in F1. Undoubtedly, there are many more ‘cons’.

The first of the negative points is that with this decision you destabilize the team at the time of pure climbing to the top. This is not the time! We must not forget where Ferrari came from and Binotto was able to create a car for the new regulation capable of winning races. That’s a very good base for 2023. Without Binotto’s bye, the team can focus on aiming for everything in 2023aware of its faults, with a car expected to fight for wins from the start. One of your big problems, engine weakness, must be solved, and more than a technician who specializes in machines like Binotto as team leader to monitor that nothing goes wrong. This year the engines were frozen and logically Ferrari demanded maximum power before reliability, but in 2023 reliability should not be a problem. Besides, they came with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at the highest level. Stability and continuity for all. In 2021 they polished off the mistakes of 2020 and in 2023 they had to do the same in relation to 2022.

But now, all those positive things are overshadowed by Binotto’s farewell and the fear or distrust that the new director may bring because of the threat of radical change. The new boss also needs to spend a lot of time getting to know the team and the project (the 2023 car should be finished). And if this is not enough, all of Binotto’s wisdom turns into delicious candy that everyone in the paddock loves. Binotto could boost a rival and that’s not a good thing for Ferrari. In F1 you can’t even give your rivals water. Surrendering to Mattia is like giving a tenth to your enemies.

on the side of Carlos Sainzit’s clear voted This gave important confidence to the pilot. He was his great supporter, the one who signed him, and if he came Frederic Vasseur, character linked to Leclerc and who raised him Alfa Romeo, things can change. But whatever happens, that should not affect the Spanish. The 2023 car is done and this too has been done to make Sainz more comfortable and eliminate his weaknesses in the 2022 car. In the battle between Leclerc and Sainz, the clock should dictate the sentence. Carlos has to go all out in the first few races. The opinion of the press and fans can change from one day to the next if Sainz wins the battle with Charles in the first meetings. There, neither Vasseur nor anyone else could take away what could be his. Everything is in Carlos’ hands. He has done the most difficult thing: to re-emerge after a very difficult start to the year. Now, in front of him, he had the opportunity to take the final step.