President Elkann has decided on the change from January between the current team principal and the Frenchman who is driving Alfa Romeo-Sauber
Luigi Perna and Giusto Ferronato
November 15th
– Milan
Scossone at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto will no longer be the team principal in F1 and Frederic Vasseur from Alfa Romeo will take his place. The news of the sensational change at the top of the Prancing Horse team concerns the management of the stable starting next January. Vasseur, 54, a French engineer, had already been sounded out last summer by Ferrari’s president John Elkann because the top management of Maranello were evaluating an alternative to Binotto, an option which then had not materialised. Among the figures surveyed also that of Vasseur, thanks to the relationship with the top management of the Stellantis group built up in these years of management of Sauber, branded Alfa Romeo. Vasseur constitutes a managerial turning point, given his curriculum as a true racing man, with a past of management of many teams in the minor leagues, unlike the more technical origins of Binotto, former chief of engineers and Ferrari technical director, before becoming a team principal.
missing performance
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Binotto pays the price for a four-year period 2019-2022 where at least the fight for the title has always been missing until the last race, a bit like what happened with the management of Maurizio Arrivabene. It’s true, the Prancing Horse’s team principal deserves credit for having brought the team back to success this year after two difficult seasons, in the belief that we can open a cycle with the new technical regulation introduced in 2022. But, for one reason or another another, the team has always lost its way from mid-season onwards, and this 2022 was no exception: after a great start, competitiveness was lacking in the second part of the season and Red Bull won the drivers’ titles by a wide margin and builders. Furthermore, there have been strategic errors and confusion in the garage on many occasions: a sign that there is still a lot to sort out within the team’s gears.
those discontents of leclerc
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Under Binotto’s management, also the storm of the power unit affair of 2019, from which the FIA investigation was born which ended with a secret agreement that left many shadows and technical repercussions in the following two years. Hard to believe that these aftermaths have not weighed in the decision on the rotation at the top of the team. Also not to be excluded as a further factor (even if for decisions of this magnitude and level, the opinion of the drivers counts for little), the discontent of Charles Leclerc, which showed itself well in Brazil last race weekend. In the summer there had already been a face-to-face meeting between the Monegasque and Binotto for the management of the Silverstone race, which was then followed by a clarifying dinner in Monte Carlo. But that the relationship had become a bit ‘confrontational, it was no mystery. And in this scenario, it is not entirely irrelevant to remember the detail that Leclerc made his F1 debut at Sauber, under the management of Vasseur.
November 15, 2022 – 1:23 pm
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