Mattia Binotto ‘not as bad as he is being portrayed’: Christian Danner
Follow Us
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto
Ferrari began the season with incredible promise, but they have not delivered on many fronts through the season, and that has meant that they are behind by 97 points in the Constructor Standings. This is a completely appalling situation, considering the car has been faster than the Red Bull on most weekends.
The drivers threw away points on three particular occasions – Carlos Sainz in Australia, where he was too impatient with overtaking, even though he had a bad start from his car going into anti-stall. The other two were from Charles Leclerc, in Imola and France, and happened when he was on push laps (or pushing hard). One can say that they lost somewhere in the region of 40 points from these mistakes.
But if the driver has made mistakes – then the team certainly has, and on many more weekends. Combining reliability problems and strategic decisions, the drivers have lost around the same amount of points as their deficit to Red Bull right now, and Charles Leclerc has mostly got the short end of the stick.
The ultimate responsibility for the team lies with Mattia Binotto – who has definitely not been spotless this season, and has been trying to downplay the mistakes the team has made, perhaps as a genuine belief, but more likely as a way of protecting the team. Criticizing Ferrari in public rarely works out for the person involved.
Also Read: “Strategy is not our weakness”: Mattia Binotto fails to see flaws in Ferrari’s race strategy
Christian Danner: Mattia Binotto has to tackle very complex things
As reported by Motorsport-Magazin, Christian Danner, who had driven with Formula 1 in the 1980s with teams such as Arrows, feels that Mattia Binotto is not the only one at fault for Ferrari’s problems. He feels that blaming Binotto is easy and rather unfair: “Binotto, in particular, kept a cool head during the disaster years, you have to give him that. It’s not as bad as it’s made out to be.”
Binotto had taken over from Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal for 2019, and he had to endure two winless years in 2020 and 2021, one of which in they were towards the bottom end of the midfield. These years were not easy, not for the team, not for the staff, and not for the fans, but Ferrari are now finally competitive again. But it seems like they are not equipped to handle it currently.
Working at Ferrari is always full of high pressure and lofty expectations, and some people can have trouble living up to that. Moreover, not everything has been all-so-well at the team recently, Danner said:: “The things that he has to tackle are so complex and varied – both technically and strategically. I don’t even know where to start.”
But he does agree that Ferrari have completely got it wrong on some occasions: “I have to honestly say that there were a few races where you were just completely wrong. You think to yourself: ‘That doesn’t exist! Why are they doing it? That can’t be true yet!'” and he also questions Ferrari’s approach to team orders. Indeed, the team look reluctant to give out team orders even when they may be necessary.
On the other hand, their two competitors have been rather spotless on the strategic and tactical fronts: “The English are very tough and very good. Both of them, the Swabian English in Brackley (Mercedes) and the Austrian English in Milton Keynes (Red Bull).”
Ferrari may not be able to win the championship from this point but never say never. But Mercedes are resurgent, and they will certainly need to counter them, and for this, they will need to clean up their act first. It’s imperative for the rest of the season.
Also Read: “You can’t blame him completely,” Felipe Massa steps up in defense of Mattia Binotto
Do follow us on: Google News | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Stay Updated!
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)