Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Mattia Binotto resigns as Ferrari’s Team Principal, and the race to replace him is on
The long-rumored break between Scuderia Ferrari and Team Principal Mattia Binotto came to fruition this week, with Binotto handing in his resignation after nearly three decades with the Scuderia. In a statement released on Ferrari’s website, the team acknowledged Binotto’s contributions for 28 years, and his contributions in “leading the team back to a position of competitiveness during this past year.”
For his part, Binotto — who joined the Scuderia back in 1995 as a Team Engineer — pointed to the bright future ahead for Ferrari. “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.”
The Scuderia finished in second place in the Constructors’ Championship during Binotto’s debut season, back in 2019. But that finish was marred by the news of an undisclosed settlement between the Scuderia and the FIA regarding Ferrari’s power unit.
Then in 2020, Ferrari suffered their worst season in recent history, finishing just sixth in the Constructors’ standings.
To their — and Binotto’s — credit, the Scuderia bounced back over the past two seasons. After making the decision to sign Carlos Sainz Jr. to replace the departing Sebastian Vettel, Binotto saw Ferrari finish third in the Constructors standings in 2021. While it was not the top-of-the-table finish the Scuderia were hoping to see, it was a sign the team was moving in the right direction. After the season, Binotto stated that “[f]inishing third… is encouraging, because it’s a declaration that the team somehow has made progress and is going in the right direction.”
While 2020 was a definite low for the Scuderia, the start to this past season was more of a high. Ferrari enjoyed a great start to the campaign, and after the first four races of the season, Ferrari sat atop the Constructors’ standings, with 124 points on the young season. Red Bull was in second, with 113 points, while Mercedes was far behind the two, sitting at 77 points on the year.
But a host of technical failures, and strategic blunders, opened the door for Red Bull to charge to the top of the standings. Worse yet, those miscues gave Mercedes a chance to claw back into the race for second, and entering the final Grand Prix of the season, the Silver Arrows were in position to overtake the Scuderia.
Which is when the rumors of Binotto’s future with the team kicked into overdrive.
Ferrari managed to hold Mercedes off, thanks to a second-place finish from Charles Leclerc — clinching second in the Drivers’ Championship — and a fourth-place result from Sainz. While those results were enough to hold off Mercedes, they were not enough to stave off the speculation over Binotto’s future.
And that speculation has now been confirmed.
The biggest question in F1 now?
Who might replace him.
Here are some of the candidates.
Frédéric Vasseur
Team Principal, Alfa Romeo
As speculation grew over Binotto’s future with the Scuderia, one of the names most frequently linked is that of Frédéric Vasseur, currently the Team Principal with Alfa Romeo. The link between Vasseur and the Scuderia is a rather obvious one, running straight through the cockpit of Leclerc’s race car.
Vasseur and Leclerc have worked together before, during the driver’s first F1 season. That came with Alfa Romeo — branded as Sauber at the time — and with Vasseur as the Team Principal. Since those days, Vasseur has continued to sing Leclerc’s praises.
However, the growing speculation regarding Vasseur’s future with the Scuderia may not sit well in some circles, most notably those around Sainz. Vasseur is a strong believer in the idea that a team should build around a top driver. Years ago, Vasseur stated that “[f]or the last 25 years, all good projects have been built around a reference driver. Ferrari with Schumacher, Renault with Alonso, Red Bull with Vettel, Mercedes with Hamilton.”
Were Vasseur to be the choice for the Scuderia, it is easy to assume that his choice for a “reference driver” would be Leclerc, his former driver with Alfa Romeo. That link has even fueled speculation that Leclerc himself is behind the move, a proposition set forth in Italian media.
Andreas Seidl
Team Principal, McLaren
Another name linked to the Scuderia in recent weeks is that of Andreas Seidl, who currently serves as the Team Principal for McLaren. Seidl moved into that role at the start of 2019, after serving at Team Principal for Porsche LMP1.
According to reports, Ferrari approached Seidl months ago about a potential move to the Scuderia, but Seidl “politely declined.” The same reporting indicated that Seidl — along with Red Bull boss Christian Horner, were “dream” candidates for the Scuderia.
Under Seidl, McLaren finished third in the Constructors’ Championship during the 2020 campaign — well ahead of Ferrari who placed sixth — and then inside the top five in each of the past two seasons.
Ross Brawn
Managing Director, Formula One
In recent days a new, but familiar, name surfaced as the potential replacement for Binotto. That of Ross Brawn, whose long career in F1 helped deliver eight Constructors’ Championships, as well as eight Drivers’ Championships, to multiple teams.
Brawn’s F1 career began back in the 1980s, but kicked into high gear when he joined Benetton — now Renault — in 1991. During his time as Technical Director for Benetton, the team won two Drivers’ Championships with Michael Schumacher (in 1994 and 1995) as well as a Constructors’ Championship during the 1995 season.
Schumacher moved to Ferrari, and Brawn soon followed. Over nearly a decade together, they helped restore the Scuderia to dominance. Schumacher won five-straight Drivers’ Championships, while Ferrari won six-straight Constructors’ titles.
Brawn stepped aside at the end of the 2006 season, but would return to F1 in 2008, as he was part of a group with Honda trying to put together a Formula One team. While that effort failed, and Honda pulled out of F1, the group was rebranded as Brawn GP in 2009, with an eye towards entering Formula One.
At the end of 2009, Brawn GP was purchased by Mercedes. Brawn himself remained as Team Principal, and lured Schumacher out of retirement to drive alongside Nico Rosberg for the newly-formed team. Schumacher raced with the team through 2012, when he retired anew, and was replaced by Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes finished second in the Constructors’ Championship during the 2013 season, but that would be Brawn’s last with the team, as he and Mercedes parted ways after a disagreement over his role.
From 2014 through 2016 Brawn was not with a team, although he did serve as part of a panel investigating a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Brawn then returned to F1 in 2017, joining Formula One in a new role as Managing Director of Motorsport. In that role, Brawn even penned weekly columns, including his most recent regarding the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In which he announced his retirement:
I’d moved away from wanting to be part of a team – I decided I’d done enough of that! And this was the only thing that could have possibly appealed. I’ve been very fortunate to have been given the opportunity by Liberty and it was a labour of love.
Now is the right time for me to retire. We have done the bulk of the work, and we are in a consolidation period now. There’s a new car coming in 2026, but that’s four years away, quite distant for me, so it’s better the next group of people take on that mantle. I believe I’m leaving F1 in a great place.
Still, that has not stopped the rumors of a return to Ferrari, most notably from Italian media. These rumors seem more hopeful than anything else, notions of a return to past dominance that ignore Brawn’s own stated desires to move away from being part of a team.
Still, Scuderia fans can dream.
Benedetto Vigna
CEO, Ferrari
If you thought Brawn was a wild-card candidate, Vigna might be the ultimate name in that category.
A physicist and businessman by trade, Vigna got his start in microelectronics. A three-dimensional motion sensor he invented for use in airbags was later reduced in size for use in the Nintendo Wii gaming console.
And you thought you would not learn anything cool today.
Vigna was appointed as the CEO of Ferrari in 2021, and in recent weeks expressed his frustration with the team’s performance. Speaking with CNBC earlier this month, he had this to say about Ferrari’s second-place finish: “I said it after the last quarter, I am not satisfied with second place because second is first of the losers. We have made some progress. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made. I’m not happy with second place. I think the team has what it takes to improve over time.”
In a recent piece for Racing News, Dieter Rencken detailed the entire backstory of Binotto’s departure from the Scuderia, and opened the door to Vigna serving as Team Principal, at least on an interim basis: “In the interim, Vigna, said to have constantly meddled with strategies despite attending but five Grands Prix this year, acts as team boss.”
But Rencken even takes it a step further, speculating that Vigna’s role might be more than just on an interim basis: “Now it is up to Vigna to prove he can do it in addition to running the car automotive division, or maybe even enlist his Nintendo buddies…”
A wild-card candidate, indeed.
