Italian Mattia Binotto will step down as director of Ferrari’s Formula 1 team at the end of the year after a troubled season, the Italian team announced on Friday.
“Ferrari announces that it has accepted the resignation of Mattia Binotto, who will step down as team director of Scuderia Ferrari on December 31st,” reads a statement from the team.
While Binotto said that he decided to end his collaboration with Ferrari, a company he claims to love and where he has worked for 28 years.
“With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari,” Binotto said.
“I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set.”
“I would like to thank all the people at the Gestione Sportiva who have shared this journey with me, made up of difficulties but also of great satisfaction.” he added.
Binotto, who originally joined the team as an engine engineer back in 1995, took on his current role, encompassing the Gestione Sportiva department, ahead of the 2019 campaign.
The Italian manufacturer started the 2022 season very well after two seasons without wins, with the Monegasque Charles Leclerc taking two wins in the first three races.
However, some strategic mistakes by the team in the following races increased criticism of Binotto’s leadership and a quiet victory of the world title by the Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
Leclerc finished the championship in second position, 146 points behind Verstappen, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz was fifth, at 208. In the Constructors’ World Championship, Ferrari finished in second position, with 554 points, 205 from champion Red Bull.
