Mattia Binotto, Ferrari, Hockenheimring, 2019

“Angry” Binotto feels responsible for Ferrari’s qualifying breakdowns

2019 German Grand Prix

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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says he feels personally responsible for the failures which sidelined both the team’s cars in qualifying yesterday.

Sebastian Vettel’s car stopped in Q1 and Charles Leclerc was unable to participate in Q3 after different problems halted both SF90s.

“We are angry with ourselves and I myself feel responsible for what has happened,” said Binotto after qualifying. “But I am also aware that we must react calmly and do our best tomorrow. That’s what we’re here to do.”

The team had been quickest in all three practice sessions at the Hockenheimring before qualifying. “At the moment the entire team is bitterly disappointed,” said Binotto.

“We feel especially sorry for our drivers who were in with the chance of doing something special for the people back in the factory who are working so hard and for all our fans,” said Binotto.

Neither of the problems which struck the cars had occured previously, said Binotto.

“We are now carrying out an in-depth analysis of what happened. What we do know is that they were two completely different problems, neither of which had ever occurred before.

“The first indications from Sebastian’s car lead us to believe it could be related to a component on the intercooler. The component is to the same specification as those used previously and it was fitted new. Charles had a problem with the fuel pump control unit.”

Leclerc is set to start the race from 10th while Vettel will line up 20th and last. “We have shown this weekend that our race pace is good, which makes it even more frustrating that we were not able to show what we could do in qualifying,” Binotto added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on ““Angry” Binotto feels responsible for Ferrari’s qualifying breakdowns”

  1. He has the Barton Fink look down. Hard not to feel bad for Ferrari

  2. He’ll be out of that job sometime next week.
    Ferrari after another F1 record?
    How many Team Principals in x years.

    1. one of these things that media made true over time.

  3. I never thought that i may thought -“I miss Arivabene now”…..

  4. During their best years the team was led by Todt, Brawn, Byrne & Schumacher … not a lot of Italians in that group.
    Now that they’ve gone back to the Italian dominated team and culture, they’re failing in the same areas they were before 1996.
    No coincidence there.

    1. Josh (@canadianjosh)
      28th July 2019, 12:03

      You said it first not me;) I wholeheartedly agree with you though. The Italian thing is special sure but the incompetence is obvious. The favouritism they showed a slower Seb at the start of the year clearly shows this team is out to lunch when it comes to leadership. Maybe they need a driver like say…..Lewis. Oh what a dream that would be to watch.

    2. Dale, of course, there were also extended periods of time when Ferrari’s senior management were also foreign nationals, yet the team was also very uncompetitive. For example, Byrne was just the latest foreign chief designer at Ferrari when he joined in 1997 – the designers before him were Barnard (British), Nichols (American) and Postlethwaite (British), and it had been sixteen years since an Italian (Antonio Tomaini) had held that role.

      Equally, whilst the credit is often given just to figures like Todt and Brawn, you realise that there were still a lot of Italians in senior positions within the team that those figures relied on – Byrne, after all, depended on the support of figures such as Aldo Costa in the aerodynamics department and Paolo Martinelli in their engine division.

      Similarly, when you look at the senior positions of the team, quite a few of those positions have been held by foreign nationals in recent years too, such as Loic Bigois and David Sanchez in the aerodynamics department, both of whom were French, or the Spaniard Toni Cuquerella.

      I know that it is a common trope to throw around, but when you look more closely at it, it doesn’t really work in practise.

    3. The only leader really that Ferrari have had since who has been successful has been Marchionne, and you could argue that he was not really “pure Italian” since he has lived and been educated in Canada in his early years.

    4. Italian egineering has always been at the very top, from the romans to this day, everyone is saying the ferrarinis now the quickest Pu, made in Italy by Italians, on the German team that is 100% British Aldo costa is touted as one of their big key people that Brawn brought along with him.

  5. Parts fail, it happens to the most prepared at the worst of times. All this outrage is kind of ridiculous…

    1. Josh (@canadianjosh)
      28th July 2019, 12:16

      If they hadn’t fumbled so many scenarios this year it wouldn’t be so significant.

      1. Yep @canadianjosh, if this was the 1st failure or fumble this year at Ferrari (apart from them being in a somewhat different place in the WCC), we would probably all think this was a big dramatic, perhaps a turn around in a mixed season, rather than a continuation of this season as it has been since winter testing, as it feels now @skipgamer

  6. I want to appreciate Binotto for holding his hand up and taking the blame. It’s a mark of a good leader, more so at Ferrari where people would be baying for heads to roll after a handful of upsets.

    But the petty part of me just can’t help but think that if only Binotto could look after the interests of his own team as much as he claims to do so for the other 9 teams then they wouldn’t find themselves in this mess.

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