‘Binotto in danger of losing his job during the summer break’

08/01/2022 11:00 AM

Ferrari may return to the track after the summer break without Mattia Binotto at the helm, that’s according to former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher.

After a strong start to the season, one in which Ferrari looked set to challenge for the championship titles, the Scuderia have fallen further and further behind Red Bull.

And they have only themselves to blame.

Dubious strategy calls have cost both drivers points as too has reliability, Charles Leclerc even losing two race wins after his PU gave up the ghost.

And while it must be noted that the drivers are not without blame, the bulk of Ferrari’s troubles fall under Binotto’s mandate.

Schumacher reckons his days could be numbered.

“I already see him in danger during the summer break,” the former F1 driver turned pundit told Sky Deutschland. “There are too many little things that went wrong and too many technical problems.

“If you get a gift like this, being able to drive for the World Championship and then you endangered it and throw it away, that’s already bitter.”

Ferrari fans might have already made up their own minds by this point…#HungarianGP#F1https://t.co/8faeRSo122

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Binotto has defended himself and his strategists, after all they get it right more often than not.

“We recently had the right strategy in France, in Austria too, so most of the time we’re right,” he said. “Sometimes we make mistakes, but others make them too, they just don’t look too closely.”

That is unlikely to carry away weight with a dejected Leclerc, who stated that it “feels like there is always something going wrong” at Ferrari.

And wrong is seemingly what happened in Hungary after another questionable strategy call cost the driver a possible win.

Leclerc was leading the race when Ferrari called him into the pits. Although he wanted to stay out longer on the medium tyres and then make a late swap to the softs, Ferrari told him to come in and put him on the hard tyres.

He fell to sixth place when all was said and done.

“It was obviously a tough weekend,” Schumacher said. “Wrong decision on Friday because you used up the tyres you would have needed in the race. That was bitter for Ferrari.

“The last stop by Leclerc was incomprehensible to me. You have two more there too places given away.”

He added: “I don’t think Red Bull expected the help.”

Max Verstappen claimed the win, his eighth of this season, to race out to an 80-point lead over Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship. Red Bull are 97 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’.

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