“No longer seeing the need of $40 million salary”: Mattia Binotto didn’t decide to sack Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel had a sad end to his spell at Ferrari in 2020. The German race driver was totally in love with the team. However, they decided to part ways after the 2020 season.

In his stint with them, the four-time world champion failed to win any championship throughout six seasons. And by the end of his time with them, an enigmatic young driver Charles Leclerc got more priority.

By 2020, Vettel didn’t seem to be lucrative enough for Ferrari. With this, Vettel’s time in Ferrari marked an end, and the German went on to race for Aston Martin for two years before retiring from his F1 career this month.

Also read: George Russell reveals why his brother couldn’t become F1 driver despite having talent

Mattia Binotto didn’t decide to sack Sebastian Vettel

According to a report by Formu1a.uno, the outbound Ferrari team principal, Mattia Binotto, didn’t decide to sack Vettel from Ferrari. It claims Ferrari chairman John Elkann was the one to push the red button.

There were two reasons for it. Firstly, he saw the $40 million salary Vettel took at Ferrari as redundant. The German race driver was looking out of his peak.

But even Ferrari’s car performances were down, and even at Aston Martin, he had underwhelming cars for two years, so it wasn’t surely known whether Vettel lost his edge.

Secondly, Charles Leclerc was rising miraculously in F1. The Maranello-based team wants the team to revolve around him, which was apparent in the 2022 season, as he got more backing in the 2022 season compared to his teammate Carlos Sainz.

Telling Vettel was the toughest moment

Binotto reveals that telling Vettel that he wouldn’t be needed at Ferrari was one of the toughest moments of his career. The Italian reveals he respected the four-time world champion immensely, which didn’t help in telling him the news.

“Telling Seb that we weren’t going to renew his contract was one of the hardest things in my career. When you respect the person, as well as the professional, it’s always difficult,” said Binotto.

Now, after two years, Binotto is set to leave Ferrari. Ferrari publicly issued that its team principal has resigned, contradicting its earlier claim this month when they called it rumours after the Italian media leaked the information.

🚨| After Binotto’s departure, Ferrari must find a new Technical Director as well as Team Principal, as Mattia fulfilled a double role.

This was made possible by Mattia’s engineering background, who worked in the engine department, and then served as CTO from 2016.

— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) November 29, 2022

Also read: Daniel Ricciardo on why he left $5 million in 2023

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More