Which contrasts so much with (massively successful) road car division. They are always stressing their international talent pool/ Italian heart. They even have an Italianate village for them close to Maranello. The village is ‘Italian” but not too much
I think his biggest mistake was getting rid of Marchionne’s matrix structure. Was working well and works great at Merc
I can’t even blame Binotto in particular because I suspect a much deeper, structural problem . In any case insurmountable in the medium term.
2019 Williams: ''it would be a dream to fight with Ferrari again!" 2020 Williams: "This is not what we meant..."
Mattia Binotto would’ve been out of his depth as team principal of Forti, Minardi, or Caterham. The fact that he somehow leads F1’s oldest and most prestigious team is nothing short of a disgrace.
Toto Wolff: ”Ferrari’s an iconic brand and they should be racing at the very front.” “It’s not good for Formula 1, it’s not good for the competition at the front and I very much feel with all the Tifosi and employees of Ferrari for this lack of performance. “And again, one must question the priorities that have been set in recent times, and where the lack of performance comes from. “But overall nobody from the fans and the Ferrari people deserves such a result.” When asked what he meant by the “priorities” at Ferrari, Wolff said: “I don’t want to speak – actually it’s wrong to say ‘Ferrari’ priorities because that drags Ferrari and everybody at Ferrari into this. “It’s maybe the decisions that have been made within the team, from certain members of the team.” At the very least axing him now would be the best thing for Ferrari. An absolute PR coup to be able to save face. He would NOT be a scapegoat as his tenure has shown pure incompetence. He is the reason for this farce. As the top engineer has signed off to blindly throw ill conceived junk against the wall (these past few car iterations) to see what sticks. How can you say he is a great engineer when it appears as if he doesn’t know which concept even works? Incompetence. Getting caught cheating. Res ipsa loquitor. How he handled axing Vettel over the phone was just douch-ey. An embarrassment in the public eye. He really drug Ferrari down with that. No redeeming qualities at all. ”it’s wrong to say ‘Ferrari’ priorities because that drags Ferrari and everybody at Ferrari into this.” “It’s maybe the decisions that have been made within the team, from certain members of the team.” Hmmm Braitore, Symonds & Piquet.....Stepney....and Binotto... Ferrari does not need a scapegoat- he has shown to be the cancer that needs to be cut out. Thanks Toto for making that public, hopefully it will be read in Maranello. With the frozen regs there is absolutely no downside at all in the move. None. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
In a discussion he had this weekend with Giancarlo Minardi ,Leo turrini mentioned Binotto’s responsibility in the current failure. he and Minardi think that the main problem is the little real autonomy he has and the lack of automotive passion at elkann. He’s the only one who leads a team but has no real autonomy. A delusional pattern.
Feeding Binotto to the wolves isnt going to change anything, even if he his proving to be a bad team principal. Who at Ferrari kicked themselves up the butt by agreeing to the freeze. Talk about self castration. If Binotto was the advocate of this agreement them i would certainly sack the guy for being totally dumb and outfoxed yet again. Its clear the car is bad when the Alfa buzzed past them today, lets not imagine what will happen next week at Monza. no-one there has a ruddy clue what to do next.........
Maybe it was Binotto himself who accepted that "deal" as some damage limitation. We can only speculate what the FIA uncovered in Ferrari's operation that could bring a sanction. Maybe the alternative would have been worse?
The biggest problem LH and Mercedes have is that most of the later victories are now becoming hollow, with no real competition the results will always look skewed. Even the Red Bull looked like a car that had been flogged to death for 44 laps, i have said it before and say it again, the merc car has so much more to give, you just sense its not on the limit. If Binotto is sacked then i guess he will turn up at the Merc factory in Bracknell UK and immediately make a huge contribution or the FIA and join the other disgruntled ex Ferrari FIA officials. Sacking the guy is the easy bit, make him stay and hand him a big shovel. Personally I dont buy into all the rubbish from the FIA & Ferrari about some clandestine deal. In my book the FIA (and other teams, mainly the merc's) couldnt help noticing the huge leap in performance from their engine. I think Hamilton described it as a missile. Any quantum leap in performance attracts attention and it did, they were investigated like the taxman would and hey presto, it was banned. Fortunately the FIA dont hold the IP rights and so could not divulge the reason. I'm sure it will come out soon. Look at the farcical pit stop, Leclerc in the box and no tyres. Those should have been ready regardless of the SC.
I don't think so. Mercedes is just repeating the success it had with its Silver Arrows during the pre-war era (1935-1940) when Caracciola dominated racing. Auto-Union, Alfa Romeo and Maserati had no opposition to offer against "Caratch" well secunded by his Number 2: Manfred von Brauchitsch. It's the same today with Hamilton collecting victories after victories with Bottas as wingman. In both eras, Mercedes emerges as the perfect team. Caracciola and Mercedes entered GP legend for that era, just like Hamilton and Mercedes will be seen as having written another chapter of racing history. Mercedes was shrouded in controversy then, just like it is accused of conspiracy today, but the statistics they will leave on the sport will ignore that.