Ferrari drivers share their opinion on the rumours about Mattia Binotto being asked to leave the team amid a slump in F1 2022.
Ferrari remains the most charismatic name in F1 whether we talk of past or present. And it is never easy being a driver for the Maranello concern. Driving for them has always pretty much meant one thing….pressure. There have been so many top line drivers who have raced for them since the sport began.
But it is not only the drivers who are under pressure. The top brass are also under fire and recent history has shown how easy it is for the bosses to be sacked if results don’t come. Ferrari made an excellent start to their 2022 campaign but since then even though they have been competitive, Red Bull have really come into their own.
So much so that they are now under pressure in the constructors’ championship from Mercedes for second place. Over the summer break, there was a rumour that Mattia Binotto would be sacked, while chief strategist Inaki Rueda was under a myriad of pressure. Reports even suggested that the former was being urged to relinquish him of his duties.
Just last week at Monza, there was rumours about his position with people urging Binotto to leave but the Ferrari camp as so far denied any of such thing to happen. The topic was thrown at drivers like Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel along with current driver Charles Leclerc about the pressure surrounding the boss being asked to leave.
“At least in my case, I never paid too much attention to rumours so all these things when you are in Ferrari,” started Alonso. “When you’re in Formula 1 in general you have to perform, if not things will change. It’s the same for drivers, mechanics, designers, bosses. There’s a huge pressure. This is not a charity event. This is professional sports.”
Vettel concurred with Alonso in most of his points. “I think you when you race for Ferrari in Monza, in Italy then you will be confronted with rumours, but like Fernando said rumours are rumours,” he said. “I haven’t heard that particular rumour but yeah, I think it’s probably something you have to deal with when you are racing for Ferrari in Italy”.
“But equally in two weeks’ time we will be somewhere else and you have to deal with it less. Yeah, rumours are there but as I said, I don’t know anything right now.” At the same time, Leclerc reckoned that such news will float but it is the idea to not get distracted by those and keep focusing on the job at hand.
“Yeah, there are always rumours around a Formula 1 team and especially with Ferrari but I think that what is most important in those moments is not to get distracted with whatever is being said around,” said Leclerc. “We are very united as a team and I think we need to keep on going like this”.
“We’ve shown that we’ve been great from last year to this year doing this type of performance and we need to keep working in that direction. Obviously taking off all of these outside rumours. I didn’t hear that one in particular, but obviously we just have to focus on our own job.”
One might even compare F1 to now being like the Premier League in England. At Ferrari, it really is a pressure cooker of an atmosphere, coupled with the fact that they made a great start to the season and it has petered away a bit with Red Bull in command now.
Here’s Mattia Binotto and others on safety car vs red flag
