FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem believes Ferrari made the right choice in Frederic Vasseur to respond to Mattia Binotto’s departure. The Frenchman was ousted from Alfa Romeo as his successor as team boss of the Scuderia and took up his post in Maranello a few days ago.
“It was a performance-related choice, I think,” said bin Sulayem during a media session at the Dakar Rally. Although he cannot predict whether Ferrari will get the desired result in the end, “but I think they did the right thing”.
Ferrari is now 15 years behind on its goal of winning the Formula 1 World Championship. In 2008, the Scuderia won the last constructors’ title, the last driver’s world championship with Kimi Raikkonen is even a year longer.
In 2022 they were close again after a small crash, but could not maintain their good early form. In the end, Ferrari didn’t stand a chance against Red Bull and Max Verstappen. “The team certainly deserved better results,” says bin Sulayem.
But the reason why Ferrari always lacks something for the title, despite supposedly good ingredients, is discussed again and again. The focus was often on the management, including Mattia Binotto, who is considered a technical genius but was not necessarily seen as suitable to lead the entire team.
One argument was always that the leadership consisted almost exclusively of Italians. That was different in the era of Michael Schumacher, when team boss Jean Todt or technical boss Ross Brawn had heads from other nations in charge.
“When Ferrari won, they had a lot of diversity,” agrees bin Sulayem. But: “It’s not about whether Italians are better than French or Germans,” he says. “It’s about finding the right person.” Then you don’t have to rely on the necessary luck.
“Even if all teams have the same engine and the same team boss, only one can win in the end,” he continues. “Nobody knows whether they have the right ingredients except Ferrari.”
But the FIA President also says: “A victory and a world championship are nothing new for Ferrari either. It’s only a matter of time before they win again.”
This article was written by Norman Fischer, co-author: Gerald Dirnbeck
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The original of this article “FIA President comments on Binotto’s successor: “Did the right thing”” comes from Motorsport-Total.com.