It was the exit that desperately needed to happen, but it still came as a surprise. Ferrari’s much-maligned team principal Mattia Binotto will leave his role at the end of the year after a chaotic season for the Prancing Horse.
"With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari. It is right to take this step, as hard as this decision has been for me,” he said in a statement.
"I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set. I leave a united and growing team. A strong team, ready, I'm sure, to achieve the highest goals, to which I wish all the best for the future."
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It marks the end of a long partnership between Binotto and the team. He first joined the engine department in 1995 and worked his way up to the very top, but unfortunately his 27-year association has been marred by a season packed full of strategy errors and reliability troubles.
Let’s start with just a handful of the strategy problems headed by Binotto and Inaki Rueda. Back in Monaco, Leclerc threw away the lead in the wet as he was undercut on his first stop and then was delayed by his teammate on the second visit to the pits. It’s almost impossible to lose a lead in the wet without crashing around Monte Carlo, but Ferrari managed it as Leclerc came fourth.
Then there was the Silverstone nightmare. Leclerc got to the front and was leading behind the safety car, but his team decided to leave him out on hards, while those rivals behind, including his teammate Carlos Sainz, went onto softs. By the time the safety car pulled into the pits, it was game over for the Monegasque. He dropped to fourth and although Sainz won, Ferrari cost themselves a one-two.
Hungary was potentially the peak of the calamities. They stuck leader Leclerc on the hard tyres for the final stint but hadn’t even tested it during Friday’s practice session. Given their rivals had struggled earlier in the race on the hards, it was unthinkable that Ferrari would stick their main man onto those tyres. But they did. He lost so much time on the hards that a third pit stop for more softs was required, culminating in a sixth place finish.
So Binotto had an awful lot of criticism come his way and rightfully so when you consider the fact that Ferrari ended up finishing over 200 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship. That, given their start to the season, is nothing short of a disgrace. So something needed to change for Ferrari, and potentially Binotto’s exit is the spark they need heading into 2023.
We may only be at the start of the off-season, with a replacement yet to be found for the team principal role, but hope is high that Ferrari can overhaul Red Bull next term. The gap between the two teams was large this term, but at the start of the season we saw that they could compete and beat Christian Horner’s team.
Max Verstappen ran away with the title but Leclerc should have been a serious contender if reliability issues and the team’s strategy didn’t let him down. Next season, they will be desperate to fend off a resurgent Mercedes and close the gap on Red Bull, but both of the chasing teams should improve on what they have shown this season.
Mercedes have the right man in charge in Toto Wolff to close the gap on Horner’s champions, now it’s up to Ferrari to make the right appointment. The wrong one could see their title challenge disappear before it has even begun. The right one could see them win their first Driver’s Championship since 2007.
