Ferrari boss to leave end of year

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MILAN. Mattia Binotto is to leave his position as Ferrari team principal at the end of the year.

A statement from Ferrari yesterday said the 53-year-old had resigned from his role and that the process to identify a replacement was “underway”.

Binotto, who has been with Ferrari since 1995, said: “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.”

Binotto worked his way up through the company to first head the engine department, then be technical director of the entire F1 team and finally to lead it.

He leaves at the end of a season in which Ferrari achieved their goals of returning to winning races, but which was marked by a series of reliability failures and operational errors.

Binotto said: “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.”

Ferrari chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna thanked Binotto and wished him well, adding that his work meant the team were “in a strong position to renew our challenge, above all for our amazing fans around the world, to win the ultimate prize in motorsport”.

Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur has been tipped as Binotto’s replacement.

Ferrari’s statement announcing Binotto’s resignation comes two weeks to the day after the company described reports in Italy that he was to leave the team and be replaced by Vasseur as “totally without foundation”.

At the final grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi, Binotto seemed to have no intention of leaving his position.

He said that he had “had a chat” with Ferrari chairman John Elkann, in which they had “discussed openly what was the best way to move forward” and “decided to release a statement that was maybe the best way to close any speculation”.

Yet it was an open secret within F1 over the Abu

Dhabi weekend that Binotto was to leave, and that Vasseur was being lined up as his replacement. And now the “speculation” has, as expected, proved to be accurate.

Binotto has paid the price for not addressing Ferrari’s weaknesses this year. He achieved his target of returning the team to competitiveness, but Ferrari squandered their first winning car since 2018 with a series of operational errors and reliability failings.

Their driver Charles Leclerc left the third race of the season with a 46-point lead over eventual champion Max Verstappen. Three races later, astonishingly, the Red Bull driver was in a lead he never lost.