Many were relieved when Ferrari announced Mattia Binotto’s departure from the team. The change would mark the arrival of a new approach and the bringing of the Italian fleet out of apparent lethargy, from a conformist attitude in the face of adversity and looking to the future.
Binotto had the support of the leadership, especially John Elkann, Ferrari’s powerful chairman. However, with Benedetto Vigna at the helm, things began to change and in search of faster results, Binotto was withdrawn.
Former Sauber CEO and Team Principal Frederic Vasseur is on a mission to change the vision of the team. Perhaps in a scenario very similar to the one found by compatriot Jean Todt in the middle of 1993. At that time, Ferrari had been fasting for 14 years and was a real technical-organizational quagmire.
To date, the work has not been shown much to the general public. Despite a festival of leaks and unconfirmed information, little by little we are achieving tangible results: the departure of David Sanchez to McLaren; Wolf Zimmermann, the “magician” of the engines, transferred to Project 2026; A restructuring of the strategy team, with Iñaki Rueda remaining in Maranello on race days and the announcement of the transfer of Laurent Mikis, current sporting director, to AlphaTauri at the end of the year.
It’s a little for the Ferrarista’s mass. As the saying goes here, it’s hard to give a hobby horse a ride across the Atlantic.
Despite being a very tempting and obviously cashless brand, Ferrari does have its problems: There is an eternal internal political battle and a pageant of passions. This situation ends up affecting performance, which has no patience for results and no confidence in paths. Using the term cited by Binotto and Elkann, it’s a “revolving door policy,” which always has people in and out, with no time to do long-term work.
Fassir still found himself tethered to a car designed under Binotto. However, the “Cursed Legacy” story loses steam and the Frenchman begins to look more and more like his predecessor in terms of protecting the team from its own failures.
Not to mention he was having internal issues defining his role at Ferrari, where CEO Vigna was very “participatory” in terms of the sport. In addition to the difficulty of attracting professionals to Italy, working conditions and taxes are a bit more stringent than in the UK.
Ferrari knows it needs a fresh, calm north to set the course. At least to the general public, Vasseur’s strategy isn’t all that clear. However, the development of 2024 could already be affected and the Italians do not want to spend a season in a position far from questioning wins.
Fasir can still judge others guilty. But time passes.
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