ITALY: Ferrari has confirmed Mattia Binotto’s resignation as team principal of their Formula One team after months of pressure and growing speculation.
After a championship in which Ferrari failed to meet early-season expectations and lost both world titles to Red Bull while in a strong position, Mattia Binotto had to cope with heavy criticism for how he handled things at Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc had two victories in the season’s first three races, giving him a 46-point lead over Max Verstappen in the standings. Ferrari was 49 points ahead of Red Bull.
However, as Red Bull re-established itself, reliability issues began to cost Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, his teammate, and the pressure mounted on Ferrari, which appeared to have no clue on how to tackle Red Bull’s resurgence.
As Formula One entered the summer break, there was speculation that Ferrari would return with a different team manager, but the Scuderia decided to stick with Binotto.
Ferrari failed to win any of the last ten races, despite Mattia Binotto stating that Ferrari could win them all and Charles Leclerc still having a chance of becoming the world champion.
He said he wasn’t worried about his future at Ferrari ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but he admitted that it wasn’t in his hands. The Italian submitted his resignation on Tuesday, as was the case.
A brief statement from Ferrari announced that the team accepted the resignation of Mattia Binotto, who will relinquish his position as Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal at the end of 2022.
Binotto asserted that he maximised his abilities to assist Ferrari with getting back to the top of the grid.
Under Binotto, Ferrari won four races this season after enduring two difficult seasons in 2020 and 2021.
Ferrari said the process to identify the team’s new team principal is underway, and the team expects to finalise the candidate in the new year.
Since Ross Brawn has decided to retire from F1, speculation is that Alfa Romeo’s Fred Vasseur will lead the Italian outfit in the future.
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