We have great faith in Mattia, but...

11/09/2022
NEWS STORY

Ferrari chairman, John Elkann insists he has great faith in team boss, Mattia Binotto but admits that there need to be improvement.

After the opening three rounds of the 2022 season, Ferrari had a 49 point advantage over Red Bull, following victories in Bahrain and Australia.

But then came a sequence of six wins for the Austrian team and little by little the Maranello challenge fell apart.

Be it mistakes by the drivers, poor reliability or strategy, the Italian team lost further ground to its rivals, slowly falling into the clutches of Mercedes.

While the Italian media is calling for changes within the team, chairman, John Elkann has a little more patience, warning team boss, Mattia Binotto that he must get a grip.

"We have great faith in Mattia and appreciate everything he and all our engineers have done," he told Gazzetta dello Sport, "but there is no doubt that the work in Maranello, in the garage, on the pit wall and at the wheel needs to improve.

"We must continue to make progress and that goes for the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers and obviously, the entire management team, including the team principal," he warned.

"We have seen that there are still too many mistakes when it comes to reliability, driving and strategy," he added. "Putting our trust in Binotto and his team was the right decision and it has paid off. Thanks to them we are competitive and winning again. But I am not satisfied because I think we can always do better."

It is 15 years since Kimi Raikkonen last won the drivers' crown for Ferrari, and while fans recall the long, long 21 year wait between Jody Scheckter and Michael Schumacher, Elkann believes the good times will soon return to Maranello.

Our first goal was to be competitive," he said. "If you are not, then you have nowhere to go, whereas you can always work on reliability.

"That's why I believe that before 2026 Ferrari will once again win the constructors' and drivers' titles, with Charles Leclerc in pole position. We are lucky to have two great drivers, probably the strongest pairing in Formula 1."

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Published: 11/09/2022
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