FILE PHOTO: Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto. REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
Ferrari on Tuesday dismissed media reports as “completely unfounded” that team principal Mattia Binotto would be fired.
Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport claims Binotto paid the price for a series of strategic blunders that sent the wheel off the team’s world championship challenge.
The paper suggests that Alfa Romeo’s France team principal, Frederic Vasseur, has been lined up to replace Binotto in 2023 from January 1.
But Ferrari denied the report outright in a social media post.
“Regarding speculation in some media regarding the location of Mattia Binotto, Team Principal Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari declares that these rumors are completely unfounded.”
Binotto was sacked after a season where the quest to end the Italian Formula 1 giants’ prolonged title hunger began encouragingly but faltered in the second half of the year.
Many pitlane mistakes spoiled Charles Leclerc’s attempt at tracking Red Bull of fugitive world champion Max Verstappen.
The Monaco man will compete in this weekend’s closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a fight for second place with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, pairing on points.
Gazzetta dello Sport suggests that since his arrival in 2019, Binotto has been unable to guarantee that Ferrari’s title battle “goes to the final race”.
The newspaper report added that “The year 2022 is no exception.”
“After a great start, the second half of the season lacked competition and Red Bull won both the driver and builder titles by a huge margin.”
Kimi Raikkonen crowned Ferrari’s last driver in 2007, with the team winning their last builder’s championship the following year.
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