Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Binotto. Or do.

Binotto went on record again and again saying there was nothing wrong with the race operations crew, and that it was no worse than Red Bull or Mercedes. Time and again he'd defend the abhorrent calls made by the pit wall, insisting the right call had been made even with egg on his face.

I honestly don't get the dooming here. People (including myself) called on the Ferrari board to stop the circus that Binotto has turned the team into, and for Binotto's head to roll for the embarrassment the team fell to after the highs of the first three races. Now that it's done, people are complaining about Binotto being fired, and Ferrari should've magically found some way to sell a demotion to Binotto instead.

 

I think people forget just how many frogs Ferrari had to kiss before they found Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, and Rory Byrne. They went through about 5 team principles in the 80's and early 90's, and while they had some success, they could only ever make the dance, while the likes of Williams and McLaren were still better.

That's what all the pre-Todt-Brawn leaders and directors had in common. They were failures. The reason the dream team stayed was because they turned Ferrari from a cluster****, into a team that was fighting for the title by their second year.

It was just not going to work out with Binotto. He demonstrated time and again his leadership skills and competency were not going to ever net a championship. He was not going to "learn" with time.

 

And before people go on about Toto and Horner being around for over a decade, keep in mind two things.

1. Horner had Newey from the get-go at Red Bull. 2. Toto was handed a Mercedes team that had been set up by Brawn, not him. They had winning design teams handed to them, which makes learning how to be team principle a lot easier.

 

Aldo Acosta and James Allison left Ferrari and joined Mercedes. Both have done well at Mercedes.

RedBull hired the best aerodynamicist(Newey) after Ferrari tried 3x to hire Newey.

Ferrari has tried to get the best, unfortunately the "handed to them"( quoting you) by your analysis is much more different.....more like "given to them" after Ferrari failed.

 

I'm saying that when you become team principle at an organization that already has a great car design team, the job is a lot easier.

 

The job of keeping that kind of continuity, stability, cohesiveness, recognition of the team is quite strategic and masterful.

Toto does it very well along with Horner.

Brawn did it too on 2 teams.

 

OMG!!!

Twitter is just lighting up with yet another rumor......jeeesh.

So, the Juventus(soccer) board have resigned including president Andrea Agnelli.

Yeah, connect the pieces.

The length that this so called rumor goes to.

 

I don't follow soccor at all, can you please explain.

 

The Agnelli family is considered like royalty in Italy. Not to mention the family ties with Ferrari and are major contributors to Ferrari.

 

The bulk of the Agnelli fortune is in Exxor now, and managed by John Elkan.

 

Not really sure what’s happening at Juventus—I don’t really care—but, yeah reading the whole board of directors resigned including an Agnelli. And I’m pretty sure Arrivabene has some role in the team, probably given to him after getting turfed from Ferrari.

The team is owned by the Agnelli clan which means ultimately Elkann so things are not going really well for him on the sporting side of the business, seems like.

One of the unfortunate problems with the Agnelli/Elkann ownership of Ferrari is that they think they can run the racing side of things like a football/soccer team and just swap out coaches and players. Also, they seem to love giving jobs to their friends or people with connections—see the Arrivabene link. They have no clue about how to run a race team and seems they can’t even run a soccer team. And I’m afraid the Vasseur link may just be because of his link to Alfa from the Stellanis side of Elkann’s portfolio.

 

Yes, truly maddening to hear Binotto defend stupid strategies but we also saw him jump off the pit wall at Hungary and storm to the back of the garage after the dumb call for LEC’s tires at the second stop. I thought for sure he was going to strangle someone for that.

This is why I say that maybe—MAYBE—he accepts they need to improve but for whatever reason, maybe to reinforce the “no blame” culture, he will not call out his people publicly. If this is the case, then changing out the TP nor will only guarantee that next year they’ll be nowhere.

On the other hand, maybe he is truly clueless—or Rueda has some compromising pictures of him—and he will not fix the operational team in which case, yes, good riddance.

 

Horner / Toto max have assumed good roles. They focused on winning and did so. That takes work and competence. They also had Leadership who didn’t fire them when things were not optimal. It certainly was not handed to them.

 

Toto fell ass backwards into a Mercedes team that had all the pieces ready for success. Aldo Costa, Paddy Lowe, and Andy Cowell were already at Mercedes before Toto arrived. He didn't have to do anything in terms of recruiting talent. It was already there. And Toto didn't have to worry about being fired, because the Mercedes master plan for dominance kicked in on only his second year. He got a winning lottery ticket from the start, and that's just a fact, which I'll stand by.

That's not me saying Toto is a bad leader. He's become a very effective one. But Mercedes winning was not dependent on him. Their dominance was going to take place with or without him. The talent pool and the cars were one of the best in history.

The next Ferrari team principle does not have such factors on their side.They don't have the most accomplished designers, the best race operations crew, or any of the other factors we talk about.

 

This is the primary reason why I was never hot to throw the guy under the bus for the past few years. I knew something was amiss at the top end of the operation when they got rid of Arrivabene for delivering a WCC level car and then keeping on Seb for years past his Use By date.

One of Brawn's stipulation for working at Ferrari was to be given full operational control of the team. I don't know if Binotto has that level of autonomy, but it is clear that changes must be made because they are throwing away championships over really stupid mistakes. If the problem comes from the board room, then Ferrari fans have a really long wait to get their next WCC.

 

True but they chose the right people to do the job.
In the background incompetent people were silently dismissed I guess.
Two years in a row of strategical mistakes for Ferrari means something serious is lacking with the team decisions concerning people unable to do the job.

 

Again like a good F1 driver you take a good capable car and win. Toto did that. Im sure if you spent some time with him at work you would see his capability. Belittling his ability and achievement is easy from a keyboard. I would not do the same to Horner, as much as I dislike his manner, he is a good leader and again, his senior leadership stayed with him during not so good times. A model Ferrari have only seen once.

Toto was a good leader before he became one in F1, he didnt learn it all on the first day at Mercedes mind you lol. You have no idea how dominant they would be with or without him before it occurred. NO team depends on just 1 person. Toto was part of the integral chain of events and resources required to win. He instilled and managed a culture of results, assessments and no blame and maintained it for years. Hardly an easy thing to to. You are shorting the entire team and its results by singling him out as almost not needed. Thats a very ridiculous assessment. Lottery ticket. How crass.

 

Ross Brawn, Formula 1's managing director of motorsports, has confirmed his retirement from the sport.

Brawn closes the curtain: 'I will now watch F1 from my sofa'

https://f1i.com/news/461999-brawn-closes-the-curtain-i-will-now-watch-f1-from-my-sofa.html

 

Si Si!

 

No more small movies post race as posted by The Mayor!

 

Ah, to be honest, I will miss that bastard a bit.

Now what´s next.

 

Yes the real mystery as who and what can they do in the short time to Testing 2023.