'No foundation' to Ferrari axe rumours – Binotto

Nov.20 (GMM) Mattia Binotto says rumours he is on the cusp of being ousted as Ferrari team boss are “with no foundation”.

After missing the Brazilian GP, as did his Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff, the pair are back trackside in Abu Dhabi for the 2022 season finale.

During the week, Italian media have been speculating that Ferrari chairman John Elkann has decided to replace Binotto with Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur for 2023.

“I was not expecting that question, so let me think now,” Binotto laughed on Saturday.

The Italian said that with the “passion” that surrounds Ferrari comes “a lot of criticism and rumours”.

“Obviously when these speculations were out I had a chat with my chairman John Elkann, together we discussed openly what was the best way to move forward and we decided to release a statement,” he added.

“That was maybe the best way to close any speculations and clearly those are speculations that are totally with no foundation , totally, with no foundations.”

However, he admitted that whether Elkann might change his mind between now 2023 is “not down to me to decide”.

“But I’m pretty relaxed. I think if I look back at the season, yes, we had a few ups and downs but I think we achieved our main objective which was to be back to be competitive in the new era of the 2022 cars,” said Binotto.