MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Mattia Binotto's shock exit from Ferrari after a near-missed 2022 season could never be complete without a signature shot of personality prangs and boardroom brawling. It all points to mismanagement and not meeting fundamental F1 excellence

- Braam Peens

As the vultures now feast on the proverbial corpse of the Ferrari F1 team's recently departed team principal, looking back to 2022 and the foundations that set up Mattia Binotto's fall, it truly was a case of "più le cose cambiano, più restano le stesse" (the more things change, the more they stay the same). This now-tired trope was first published in a French journal, Les Guêpes, the title of which translates to "The Wasps".

How could matters get so out of hand to warrant a forced resignation from a man who had led Ferrari to second in the 2022 driver's and constructor's championships?

Come the season's opener at Bahrain, Binotto could hardly believe his luck. His cars had emerged second-fastest behind the allconquering Red Bulls after preseason testing; what's more, in a maverick-but-misguided interpretation of the new ground-effect rules, the neutered Mercedes team seemed to chase their tails for most of the year.

Ferrari had spent a winless two years in the wilderness. It was just the shot in the arm they so desperately needed.

Four races on, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc led Red Bull's defending champion, Max Verstappen, by more than a victory's worth of points thanks to the early RB18 being overweight and unreliable and far from the liking of the increasingly petulant Dutchman.

For all its fate-tempting portentousness, the surprise upswing made the resultant title talk impossible to ignore. So, too, the pressure after a 15-year title drought in Maranello.

Then came the blunders. From running the engines too hard and strategic slip-ups to an inability to keep pace with Red Bull's development, these multiplied into a slowmo train wreck as the season dragged on.

The fact that the Ferrari was the pacesetter for the first half of the season but could not consummate a championship challenge meant Binotto was a dead man walking.