Following another year of failure in clinching the title, Mattia Binotto has left the position of team principal of the Ferrari F1 team.
While the prancing horse enjoyed one of its most competitive seasons in 2022, a combination of reliability and strategic errors saw the Italian giants lose to the Red Bull F1 team as Max Verstappen clinched his second championship title.
With the position of team boss vacant at the Scuderia, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was asked if he would have entertained an offer from Ferrari before joining Mercedes in 2013.
Wolff admitted that he would have been interested in a move to Maranello if Ferrari had approached him.
The Austrian, who now owns a third of the Mercedes’ F1 team, said that whoever claims not to be interested in being Ferrari’s team principal is simply not telling the truth.
Toto Wolff was surprised by how long Binotto held on to Ferrari
After hearing the news of Binotto’s exit from the Scuderia, Wolff admitted that he was surprised by how long had the team principal held on to Ferrari before the “unavoidable happened”.
Speaking at the Beyond The Grid podcast, the Mercedes boss said that it was clear that Binotto was under tremendous pressure at the Scuderia. He further added that being a team principal at Ferrari requires a good exit contract.
Binotto was promoted to the role of team principal in the 2019 season. He has ever since been working with his team to compete against the rivals and clinch that title. But he has failed.
Wolff explained that representing Ferrari equates to representing the whole country. The Italian media writes about the team and people concerned all the time and they shower criticism with brutality.
Especially an Italian team boss is an even harder task to perform. As a foreigner, a person doesn’t dig into the Italian news but sharing the nationality of the team brings the “team principal” in the line of fire.
Mattia Binotto can not land a job with Mercedes
During Binotto’s early days as team principal and going up against the dominant Mercedes, the 53-year-old often found himself not in a friendly situation with Wolff.
The rivalries between the two top teams turned sour with Binotto once saying that “it is not hatred that he feels towards Toto, he just wants to beat him and Mercedes.”
Following Binotto’s exit, when Wolff was asked if the Italian has a chance to land a job with the Silver Arrows in some capacity, the Austrian slammed the door on the question.
The Mercedes boss replied ‘No’ and believes that already ‘too much porcelain’ has broken between the two of them over the last few years.
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