Opinion: Ferrari firing Mattia Binotto was the right thing to do

Mattia Binotto stepped down from his position as the Ferrari team principal at the end of the 2022 F1 season, ending an association that lasted nearly three decades. The Swiss-born Italian started his F1 career with the team and his departure was surely an emotional affair.

One of the reasons why Binotto was given the boot at Ferrari was the team's disastrous mid-season run, where it was either a reliability or a strategy-related issue that compromised results every race weekend.

At the same time, the team have significantly improved over the last three seasons, and in 2022, they beat Mercedes to finish second in the constructor's championship.

This led to a level of outrage over Binotto's exit. Many F1 fans and pundits called it another drastic move by the Italian team that was almost unnecessary.

However, looking at the four-year stint as team principal for Binotto, it's safe to say that firing the Italian was the right decision by Ferrari.

Mattia Binotto's role in Ferrari's decline

Many fans and even pundits have given credit to Binotto for Ferrari's revival in 2022. What should not be forgotten, however, is that while the Italian was pivotal in bringing the team back to the top, it was the same man who was responsible for its slump in the first place.

Binotto was appointed as the team principal in 2019 and it was under his guidance that the questionable (and probably illegal) Ferrari power unit made its debut the same year.

Ferrari were runners-up in three of the last four seasons (2015, 2017, and 2018) before Binotto's appointment as team principal. Under his leadership, the team went downhill, finishing twice outside of the top two — including a sixth-placed finish in the 2020 season.

While it is appreciable to see the Italian team back at the top in 2022, it is hard to deny that it was Binotto who was responsible for the fall.

The dual Technical Director/Team Principal role didn't make sense

One thing that Binotto deserves to be given credit for is his technical prowess. Amongst all the hubris of the last few years as a leader, one thing that was clearly forgotten was how impressive Binotto was as a technical director. Binotto replaced Mercedes-bound James Allison as the technical head of the team in 2016, and the team produced a beautiful car the following year.

Sure, it wasn't the best on the grid and just a tad slower than Mercedes but it was one fantastic piece of machinery. In 2017 and 2018, while the Italian team did end up conceding the title to Mercedes, the two challengers were just spectacular to watch.

Both the cars had groundbreaking work on the sidepods and left the competitors befuddled with the details on them.

All of this changed when a seriously impressive technical director also took over the role of team principal. French former F1 driver Rene Arnoux recently made the very important point that the F1 world is all about specialists and one man can't do a job meant for two people.

This was essentially the role that Binotto was playing and it's safe to say that it backfired. Placing Binotto as the team principal compromised the technical side of things and vice versa. Hence, a glaring hole in Ferrari's strategy got exposed in the 2022 F1 season.

The public admonishment of the team's lead driver

Ferrari have been infamous for shying away from taking any blame for their shortcomings. The team did that extensively in 2022 as well. Whenever there was a strategic mistake that ruined Charles Leclerc's race or his charge for a win, the team tried to divert the focus and talk about irrelevant things.

What was almost painful to watch was the public admonishment of Leclerc after the race at Silverstone. In so many ways, Ferrari's 2022 F1 campaign could be summed up in that one race.

Ferrari failed to see the big picture as Leclerc lost significant time behind his teammate early in the race. To make things worse, a late-race safety car debacle by the team ruined Leclerc's race and took away an easy win from him.

Leclerc was livid after the race because the team did not have his back. What was rather surprising was Binotto walking up to Charles right after the race in what appeared to be a public dressing down of the team's lead driver.

It was a message that Leclerc needed to keep himself in check during his interactions with the media, but the way it was done was not ideal. The lead driver in the team, especially a talent like Leclerc, needs to be given all the resources that are available.

At the same time, they need to be handled delicately. The way Binotto went about it almost left Leclerc alienated within the team and that's the opposite of what you want for your lead driver.

While it is safe to say that the way Ferrari went about getting rid of Binotto was not the best, the Italian had to go! Binotto was a shrewd technical director but he was never a strong leader. Could he have taken the Italian team back to its glory days? On the evidence of what we've seen, it's hard to say yes.