Mattia Binotto and farewell to Ferrari: surprise words from Toto Wolff

Rivals for years, but now come words that might surprise some.

Mattia Binotto and Ferrari have famously parted ways, with Frederic Vasseur taking over as team principal from January. And now to talk about the now former boss of the Cavallino’s team wall, Toto Wolff, a colleague at Mercedes, has stepped in to frame the relationship between the two in the past and present.

“It’s no mystery that we’ve had to deal with some tense moments over the years,” Toto Wolff said in a speech to ‘Beyond The Grid,’ an official Formula 1 podcast. In a way, however, we have strengthened our relationship over the course of 2022. It definitely got better, and I think I can understand today what kind of pressure he was constantly under.”

“His farewell was probably inevitable,” Wolff added about Binotto, “but even I think he managed to last longer than I had anticipated. When you work at Ferrari you represent it, and you represent a whole country. That can exalt you, but also brutally drown you. Doing that job as an Italian, then, accentuates it. Because you read all the news and feel you are in the crosshairs of critics, it becomes even easier.”