Why Binotto’s exit leaves Ferrari with an impossible target for F1 2023

However much Binotto became an easy target for the critics amid Ferrari’s reliability and strategy errors that grabbed the headlines in 2022, it was his many under-the-radar qualities that were key to having got the squad back to the front in the first place.

And, after a season where it learned some tough lessons about the perfection needed to be a championship contender, the ramifications of a new boss coming in could be immense.

As a team boss who understood the technical aspects of engines, cars, and their operation, as well as the political machinations of the F1 paddock, the FIA, and the media, Binotto’s remit stretched large and wide for what is perhaps the most high-pressured job on the grid.

In losing Binotto, Ferrari is instantly without a team boss who had perhaps the most in-depth comprehension amongst his peers of car/engine design and performance parameters, as well as a direct understanding of the challenges and compromises of making a race-winning package.

Winning in F1 is all about marginal gains, and the knowledge that Binotto had of Ferrari’s concepts and motivations was going to be critical in helping the squad make the step needed to get back on terms with Red Bull in 2023 – and fight off the renewed threat from Mercedes.

Binotto’s imminent departure will leave Ferrari without that detailed insight at perhaps the most critical moment of the year as it pulls its new car together.

It will take any new team boss who comes in many months to get a grip of Ferrari’s design direction, structure and cost-cap spending plan. And, by the time they get up to speed with things, the 2023 title battle could be all but lost already.

Getting calls wrong in the early stages of next year could cost immediate laptime if the team ends up going down the wrong path, and spending restrictions mean little opportunity for U-turns.

Binotto also fully understood the dynamics of Maranello politics, having been in the team since 1995, working first in the engine department and then moving up the ranks.

He saw how it worked when he was part of the system and, after stepping up to the team principal role, put in place below him the structure he thought best to help push it forward.

With Ferrari under Binotto’s predecessor Maurizio Arrivabene having completely mismanaged its handling of chassis technical director James Allison during his tenure from 2013 to 2016, it was clear…