Have you seen him lately lol. Not looking like one ready for the grind of Pitwall for 23 races with Ferrari. They fired Binotto(he so called resigned) at the wrong time. It will be internal possibly or we suffer Vasseur etc. Berger is not a candidate and just offloaded DTM.
The third driver I was referring to often drove only a few laps and then crashed, his first finish was in his 5th race.....
LdM was a young man with no experience in racing when he was chosen to lead the team. Ferrari was at the lowest point perhaps ever when he arrived. I remain hopeful. Having said that I think that Elkann doesn't get the whole racing thing and doesn't particularly care?
I’m not Elkann’s largest fan however I’m not sure how anyone can come to this conclusion. They’ve just launched the 499P, the first factory LeMans effort in decades. They just lunched them 296GT3 to continue GT racing. These efforts aren’t free or accidental or easy.
Ferrari used to spend $300M+ per year in F1. The budget cap left them with plenty of spare cash and surplus staff. It's a no brainer that these resources could be put to good use. What better than a factory endurance program?
They didn’t HAVE to. They weren’t OBLIGATED to. They could have thrown all that into EV R&D. LOL. So, you could see Enzo’s off camera passion and not Elkanns, OK. I think they are more passionate about racing now than they’ve been in a very very long time.
Yes and that’s what they’re doing now. However I mean they didn’t need to launch a race team. They could have done electric R&D without racing like all the other marquis.
They´re racing more now than in the last 20 days, that´s no question. And that came before the budget cap, they already had 488s running everywhere.
They are obligated to in all honesty. A huge portion of Ferrari's brand image is their racing pedigree, without it they lose something that is unreplicable and counts HUGELY towards the mystique the brand carries. The Old Man sold cars to pay for racing, now Ferrari goes racing to sell cars. It's a cornerstone of the business and without it the brand image would take a huge hit. It's embarrassing for Ferrari to flounder so publicly and so regularly, there simply isn't enough being done and the buck stops with Elkann. Firing Binotto isn't the masterstroke solution to their problems, the team will continue to throw away opportunities unless something drastic is done. This change needs to come from the top
They could have kept the status quo with F1 participation. I never said firing Binotto was a master stroke.
My point about Binotto specifically being that it's lazy leadership from someone who isn't terribly invested in the racing side of things.
Binotto leveraged himself into that position would never take a lateral move or demotion. I think it would have been better to keep him on the technical side however that was never going to happen.
Ferrari got into Endurance because it makes business sense. Since their activities in F1 are budget capped, participating in another World Championship is a good use of their resources. They don't do rallying, they are already in GT, so bringing a Hypercar in the WEC will give them good exposure. Ferrari has already obtained plenty of publicity before their car entered the first race !
Now Ferrari has win at both fronts-->F1 and WEC(499P). Ferrari is just in F1 and now WEC to race. Their competitors are in it to win.
True, but in WEC(499P) it's been 50 years since Ferrari's absence. IMO, it's gonna take years for them to catch up on all aspects in WEC. F1 has a strong loyalty base I will admit.
Some of you in here are hilarious. Ferrari are damned if they do and damned if they don’t from the armchair quarterbacks. They are victim of their own success and popularity, like the Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys etc etc.
That's a situation of their own making, and regularly maintained as the recent sacking of Binotto proves. They thrive in controversy, drama and internal politics, and you are annoyed because people comment about it.
Di Montezemolo: It’s worrying, I see Ferrari without leadership Image Unavailable, Please Login Credit to Luca do Montezemolo for not having an almighty swipe at Ferrari in their time of demise, the team he twice led to greatness, during the Niki Lauda era and the magnificent Michael Schumacher era. Why? Because he was marginalised by his bombastic successor Sergio Marchionne, who took over the company (the Scuderia most importantly) and proceeded to dismantle it, even undermining and trying to erase the importance of Di Montezemolo’s role in the team’s illustrious history. But Marchionne passed away in July 2018, now five years later the mess he contrived is manifesting at Maranello, where confusion reigns in the wake of Mattia Binotto’s resignation leaving the great Italian team without a team principal. Thus no surprise the 75-year-old De Montezemolo was tapped up to comment on the chaos that has descended on Maranello, and told Corriere Della Sera: “I see a Ferrari without leadership.” And also without a drivers’ F1 world title since Kimi Raikkonen did the business in 2007, while 2008 was the last F1 constructors’ the Reds claimed; while this year might’ve been for Ferrari but wasn’t, under Mattia Binotto (despite a great car in the F1-75) they simply ran out of steam, making eye-watering strategy and pitstop blunders along the way. All but gifting the title to Max Verstappen and Red Bull. However, the biggest gaffe by far has to be by the invisible leadership, namely Ferrari chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna Binotto who sent Binotto packing at the end of this month without a sign of a successor! Di Montezemolo: I dislike the situation at Ferrari, I find it worrying Image Unavailable, Please Login “But Ferrari is so close to my heart that maybe it’s better not to comment further, even if I have to say I see a company without leadership,” he added As for the glaring mistakes and shortcomings during Binotto’s tenure, Di Montezemolo said: “So what? In my time we also made mistakes, as happened at Mercedes and Red Bull Racing. Only Ferrari is exposed to much more media attention. And Ferrari won’t forgive anything because it’s Ferrari.” “Mattia Binotto is intelligent enough to always protect his team. He catches bullets for his people. Mistakes have to be understood and then corrected. Binotto is an excellent technical director, but running Ferrari’s racing department is different.” As for the future team principal for the Scuderia, the Italian reckoned: “Should you change the team boss? Who am I to say that? “Ferrari is like the Italian flag – a national monument. Before I brought Jean Todt to Maranello in 1993, I thought about this choice for a long time. There was a huge circus in the media. If I were looking for a new boss now, I would also look outside of Formula 1. “However, if we only pay attention to what Red Bull Racing or Mercedes-Benz are doing, then the problem will not be solved. We have to reinvent ourselves and create a new dynamic. Ferrari has built an extremely competitive car. One person alone does not win world titles. Formula 1 is a team sport.” Enzo Ferrari never went to Rome in his life, he never caught a plane or took an elevator Image Unavailable, Please Login Finally, Luca recalled his first contact with team patron Enzo Ferrari: “When the universities were busy in 1968, one day I was a guest on the radio ‘Chiamate Roma 3131’ where a listener called to say that motor racing was a sport for the rich; I replied that it wasn’t true, that Bandini was the son of a mechanic… It so happened that Ferrari was listening. “I had graduated in law and wanted to be a criminal lawyer. Then I won a scholarship to Columbia but in the first days of January 1973 I went to see Enzo Ferrari, and he asked me to be his assistant. My parents were terribly disappointed: They asked, are you going to play with toy cars?” As for Ferrari, the man, the legend, the myth. Di Montezemolo said “He had his foibles about him: he never went to Rome in his life, he never caught a plane or took an elevator. When Ferrari did the deal with L’Avvocato (Gianni Agnelli), his signature was made on the ground floor of Corso Marconi. “But he was an extraordinary man. He taught me two things: don’t give up when things go wrong; always ask for more, of yourself and of your collaborators, when things are going well. He had a natural talent for marketing: Baracca’s little horse, all-red cars, the shrewdness of making people wait even if the car was ready. “Ferrari for Enzo was like a beautiful woman who makes herself desired,” declared Montezemolo. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz remain with Ferrari for the 2023 F1 season, both publically acknowledging the big role played by Binotto in their respective careers. https://www.grandprix247.com/2022/12/07/di-montezemolo-its-worrying-i-see-ferrari-f1-team-without-leadership/
I wouldn't be (that) worried: the WEC program is going to be managed by AF Corse. They've shown strong results throughout the years they've been involved.
