Ferrari have had a massive change in leadership for the 2019 season, with Arrivabene making way for Binotto.
Arrivabene’s strategic blunders in 2018 paved way for whispers to go around the Ferrari camp about his competence as team principal.
Binotto had admirably led the technical team to dish out the fastest car on the grid for a large part of the 2018 season, but Ferrari’s on track strategy let them down big time(that along with Vettel’s mistakes).
A power struggle was reported within the Ferrari camp, one that could be sorted only with Arrivabene’s departure, as a large part of the work force wanted Binotto to be team principal.
The Ferrari top management thus decided to act and replaced Arrivabene with Binotto.
Now, the exact equation between Arrivabene-Vettel is not really known, but according to reports in AutoBild, Vettel wanted him to leave as well.
Reports last year had stated that Arrivabene was sort of favouring Raikkonen, but nothing of that was confirmed.
Vettel had several dinners with Binotto before the announcement, as the duo needed to see if they had each others trust.
“Under Arrivabene‘s leadership, even the die-hard Ferrari enthusiast Vettel doubted whether Ferrari would return him the same love he had for the team. Therefore after the summer, Vettel had some private dinners with Mattia Binotto.” AutoBild has reported.
[Autobild] Under Arrivabene‘s leadership, even the die-hard Ferrari enthusiast Vettel doubted whether Ferrari would return him the same love he had for the team. Therefore after the summer, Vettel had some private dinners with Mattia Binotto.#F1
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) January 8, 2019
[Autobild] From then on Binotto knew: Vettel is my man, he trusts me, I can build on him.#F1
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) January 8, 2019
A lot of the speculation around this move was about who maybe Vettel wasn’t quite happy with the move, but this AutoBild report confirms that Vettel was on Binotto’s side all this while.
This is also for the people that think Vettel and Binotto don‘t have a close relationship.
Vettel was on Binotto‘s side in all of this 😅
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) January 9, 2019
Also, Binotto had essentially asked Ferrari to choose between him and Arrivabene. Binotto had the backing of a large majority of the team.
Regarding the whole thing with Binotto saying "it‘s either me or Arrivabene."
Autobild reported that Binotto did not only speak for himself, but a works council, that means he spoke for the vast majority of the team. They were all behind him in this. He is supported
🙂
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) January 9, 2019
Thus, Vettel too played a massive role in Arrivabene’s sacking and Binotto’s appointment, and it would be heartening for the Ferrari fans to know that the duo get along well.
