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

+1
Binotto revealed his poor self awareness

 

That's your view on Ron Dennis' downfall? LOL!

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Mercedes will easily be at least a strong #2 at the beginning of 2023. No more bobbing.....

And this means Ferrari will slide backwards....

 

Still rumors that ferrari keeps trying to lure Ross Brawn...but in the end. Should be vasseur

 

The Spygate in 2008, and Ron Dennis being ousted as Chairman of the McLaren Group in 2017 are not related.

Having resigned in 2009 (replaced by Martin Whitmarsh), Dennis was in fact recalled as CEO in 2014.

Dennis' plan to increase the capital by offering 50% shares to Chinese investors was the real cause of his downfall.

In the tug of war among shareholders Dennis lost. He sold his shares for £275M and severed links with McLaren.

He is now in real estate apparently. In 2019, Forbes estimated his worth at £450M.

 

Ferrari F1--->"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

They're backs are against the wall currently. No one of such high caliber wants to help run this team.

 

It's understandable. Who wants to be the "fall guy" ? Vigna should have initiated a reorganisation first, before inviting candidates.

Why should the next TP have to start the culling his predecessor refused to do in the past ?

 

This team is such a black hole. If Leclerc manages to win a championship with them, it will be an act of a higher power.

 

Yes, they are. It was the beginning of the end.

Dennis engineered Alonso's move to McLaren under the promise of #1 status, but he failed to uphold that promise when Hamilton was clearly on the pace from the start and Dennis didn't want to hold him back. Dennis failed to control the catastrophic infighting between his drivers and between each side of his own garage. Next, Alonso threatened to expose McLaren's spying unless he got #1 status as promised so Dennis himself went to Mosely directly with the information about spying on Ferrari, although Alonso later withdrew the threat it was too late. The loss of WCC points, $100 million fine (probably so severe because Dennis was constantly at war with Ecclestone and Mosely), and the bad publicity of Alonso departing certainly didn't help the funding of the team, which the other stakeholders in McLaren Group would not have taken kindly to - I believe that's why he was replaced with Whitmarsh by Ojjeh and Dennis took a step away from the F1 team to "concentrate" on the roadcare division as Chairman of McLaren Group.

Unfortunately, McLaren were beaten to the WCC by a customer team of Mercedes, which made their works support vanish as Mercedes bought out Brawn GP. Even worse, their nurtured talent and WDC Lewis Hamilton defected to the new Mercedes Team in 2013, the same year that McLaren also lost its title sponsor Vodafone. That sponsorship was not replaced with any other title sponsor and Dennis continued to have fights with Ojjeh and other shareholders (i.e. The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Bahrain), with Ojjeh telling Dennis he wanted him out. While Ojjeh was recovering from lung transplant surgery, Whitmarsh (an Ojjeh ally and friend) was forced out by Dennis so that he could return to the team directly in 2014 with the promise to the Bahrainis that he would secure the funding required to take a controlling share in the company. When Ojjeh had recovered, Dennis was already in place, and it was a fait accompli awaiting Dennis' funds to take control. However, the funds Dennis lined up from multiple Chinese consortiums kept failing to materialize and the performance of the team continued to deteriorate under his direct leadership. The failed Chinese funding was not the cause of his downfall, the promise of those funds amidst Ojjeh's critical health was the only thing that brought him back in 2014 - otherwise he would have been kept away from the F1 team.

After 2 more years of turmoil, Ojjeh the other investors told him they would not be renewing his contract for 2017, so Dennis actually took them to the High Court and was suspended as Chairman in late 2016 until his contract expired at the start of 2017. Predictably, the court case was dismissed because he didn't have a controlling share in the company. It culminated in not only his ouster from the management of McLaren Group and the McLaren F1 team, but the forced sale of his stake in the company. As he was being kicked out the door and his security pass being put through the shredder, McLaren Group and the McLaren F1 team were saying lots of lovely things about him to the press.

So, yeah, going back to this...

...you can say it was businesslike without scandal and hardly even commented upon, but that doesn't make it true.

The end of Ron Dennis at McLaren was a litany of promises not kept, political infighting, scandal, fines, a failed takeover bid, and he was, ultimately, absolutely slayed like an overthrown chief in medieval times. The phenomenon is hardly unique to Ferrari for the boss to take the blame for failed management resulting in campaigns that came up short of the results that were expected - the only reason Ron Dennis' struggles were over such a protracted and painful timeline was because he had an ownership stake in the company, the road car business was starting out ok, and it enabled him to cling on for as long as he did. McLaren are still, even to this day, fighting to get back to the sort of form they were in prior to Dennis' return to the team in 2014.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

My feeling is that Ferrari screwed up here. They shouldn’t have pushed Binotto out the door this year. They should have waited to see whether he could correct the pit wall/strategy and pit crew issues and whether the long term plan (of having the most powerful engine possible this past year and deal with reliability next year) would have paid off.

What great TP would want to come into a place where one can’t survive long enough to implement a thoughtful plan that takes more than a year or two? It’s clear Ferrari had very difficult and ingrained issues that needed multiple seasons to correct. And my guess is that Binotto didn’t publicly say much about strategy issues so as not to continue the blame culture. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t quietly replace those folks.

There were plenty of absurd strategy issues. But it seems like those could have been fixed (specially if an ultimatum on them was given to Binotto).

Anyhow, time will tell.

 

No other team needs stability and continuity more than Ferrari.
And no other team indulges more in changing key people constantly, and destabilizing the team and organisation, than Ferrari.
I don't know if Binotto has/had what it takes to bring back the long awaited championship to Ferrari, but what I know is that his departure will hardly help.
The worst enemy of Ferrari has always been Ferrari.

Rgds

 

...that is, IF; lured there by the "red mist"; his career could end just like Alesi's...well, "next season will be the good one", or will it?

Rgds

 

+1 - with this departure of Binotto his chances declined in my assessment to win a title.

 

What exactly was Binotto going to change? According to Binotto, everything was just peachy at Ferrari.

We kept thinking the team couldn't hit more pitiful lows on race weekends with Binotto, and yet he kept finding new and improved ways. Fact of the matter is, had Ferrari been in a tight championship battle when these strategy snafu's occurred, the consequences would've been grave. You simply can't win a championship with amateurish race operations and a team boss that tries to appease the slower driver, while publicly feuding with the faster one. Binotto kept showing he had incredibly poor judgement and zero control of his team.

Ferrari will be fine. The engineers who designed the F1-75 are still at Ferrari. Leclerc and Sainz are still there, too. But it is just a simple fact that Ferrari need to gut their track operations crew, and start from scratch. Can't do any worse than this past season.

 

Oh yes they can do worse...unfortunately. Their track record in the matter is telling.
We'll see, I do hope that I'm wrong and I'm ready to eat humble pie, or to eat crow, or to eat my hat (as the French say) but I have a feeling that next season is already scr.w.d.

Rgds

 

Plucky Brits, grim Germans and chaotic/Machiavellian Italians....can't wait until the loud mouthed Yanks arrive.
Late as usual, one expects

Anyway, enough with the national stereo types (apologies to Bas and his clogs).

Maybe Ferrari do have a plan for succession and an announcement will be rapidly forthcoming?

There is a great need to get this done before Christmas and get people in place for the new year.
The longer speculation goes on the worse 2023 is likely to be.

 

Exceptional write up

 

+1 thank you.

 

Don’t get me wrong. The Italians are GREAT and can build and do almost anything. But teaming in a very complex sport takes teaming, and while Italians CAN achieve it, Ferrari has not since Todt. They built a superior new F1 chassis for 2022 and had plenty of power, winning easily early. THEN Binotto took over from the factory engineers and downhill she went. MIGHT JUST BE that HE was the problem!!!

 

MIGHT JUST BE that HE was the problem!!!

Well it's done now so let's hope so !

Though I suspect the problem is more structural.
Anyway, I will feel better when we get an announcement from Ferrari about replacement(s).
Then I will get my hopes up.
Then they will be crushed.
Same as it ever was...

 

Lots of speculation on everyone’s part, including mine. For whatever it’s worth, I wouldn’t base too many things on what a TP tells the public. It’s called “coachspeak.” Basically, b.s. fed to the public in order to not unnecessarily reveal one’s thinking to opponents or unnecessarily throw one’s own staff under the bus publicly.

In sports it’s usually best to do coachspeak and carry on behind closed doors. It just becomes harder when one’s fans are … ummm … not known for mountains of rationality or patience, AND the higher ups react under that pressure.

Anyhow, the strategy at the last race was good and I believe even LeClerc indicated that strategy had been improving in the last few races. So, maybe something was in the works already.

But, again, I admit I’m speculating like most.

 

^ ^ ^ This ^ ^ ^

 

and he remains miserable cnut