Since the summer, his head had been in danger. Two weeks ago, the prestigious Gazetta dello Sport had even fired him already. Information immediately denied by the Scuderia. But Ferrari and Mattia Binotto have put an end to their common adventure. Binotto is no longer the boss of the Scuderia. In a press release published Tuesday morning, the Italian team announces that his resignation has been accepted and that the Italian will remain in office until December 31.
“With the accompanying regrets, I have made the decision to end my collaboration with Ferrariwrote Binotto. I am leaving the company I love, of which I have been a part for 28 years, with serenity because I am convinced that I have done everything I could to achieve the objectives set. I’m leaving a united team, strong and ready, I’m sure, to reach the heights. I wish him the best for the future. I think it’s the right time to make this decision, even if it is difficult. I would like to thank everyone at Gestione Sportiva who shared this journey with me, punctuated with great difficulties but also with great satisfactions. »
Appointed in January 2019, he had first contributed to bringing the Italian team back up to standard, offering his first two victories to Charles Leclerc (Belgium and Italy) and his last to Sebastian Vettel (Singapore) with a questionable engine which condemned elsewhere the team has two years of purgatory. For flirting with legality, Ferrari had to undergo a regulatory change that gnawed at its cylinders in 2020 and 2021.
No big deal, Binotto defended himself. He would play everything in 2022 with the drastic regulatory change. The beginning of the year proved him right. The F1-75 crushed everything in the hands of his protege Charles Leclerc. And then everything went wrong: the reliability of the overpowered engine, the decisions of the low wall and finally relations with the Monegasque, spoiled on the evening of Silverstone when the trust between the driver and his boss was shattered on a strategic choice which shattered the chances of victory for Leclerc.
Preferred vasseur for the position
For all this, the Italian no longer holds his prestigious position. And this, even if the Scuderia finished in second place in the Constructors’ Championship, a position it had not occupied since 2019, precisely, the year of Binotto’s debut at the head of the Gestione Sportiva.
For the moment the name of his successor is not known. It will not be unveiled until early next year. Fred Vasseur, former co-director of Renault when he returned in 2016, then boss of Sauber since 2017, is the favorite for the position.