Ferrari should consider axing strategy boss

Aug.10 (GMM) Ferrari should consider ousting its Spanish strategy chief, according to the Maranello team’s former boss Cesare Fiorio.

Whilst acknowledging reliability and strategy mistakes that have put Charles Leclerc 80 points behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, current boss Mattia Binotto insists the current team needs no drastic changes.

Fiorio, who was Ferrari boss in the early 90s, does not agree.

“I certainly expected an intervention by John Elkann after the events in Budapest,” he told the Italian magazine Autosprint, referring to Ferrari’s executive chairman.

“Unfortunately, the mistakes have been numerous,” the 83-year-old added.

“The 2022 car is very competitive and you can see that the team has made progress compared to the last two years. The credit for that must be given to Binotto, who has always been very skilled on the technical side and is leading the engineers to build a winning machine.”

Autosprint claims Binotto’s current contract only runs until the end of the current season.

“Mattia was originally a designer and he knows how to do that job very well, as shown with the F1-75,” said Fiorio. “He just needs people who fit better with the culture.

“Binotto needs to stay in place, but not Rueda,” he added, referring to Ferrari’s under-fire strategy chief Inaki Rueda.

“He has never positively influenced the different teams he has worked for,” Fiorio charged.

After stints at McLaren, Jordan, Renault and Lotus, Rueda moved to Ferrari in 2015 and was made head of the strategy and sporting sides in 2021.

Fiorio thinks part of the problem is that Ferrari has followed the trend of other leading F1 teams in outsourcing the core of the strategy department to a ‘race control’ back at Maranello.

“Modern strategies are based on very advanced and complex mathematical models, which unfortunately no longer correspond with personal intuitions,” he said.

“In the race, you often have a few seconds in which decisions have to be made. You don’t have time to analyse dozens of models, manage computers and communicate remotely.

“It means Ferrari is now lacking this personal intuition,” said Fiorio.