Ferrari, Alesi goes down flat on relationship between Binotto and Charles Leclerc

An in-depth analysis of Ferrari’s recent past by someone who knows Maranello very well.

Charles Leclerc and his balance with Carlos Sainz, some less-than-effective strategy choices, and Mattia Binotto’s departure at the end of the season. The Ferrari of 2022 has seen alternating peaks of competitiveness and days of great frustration, with balances on which a historic former driver of the Rossa, Jean Alesi, wanted to dwell.

The French driver, at Maranello between 1991 and 1995, made no secret of himself in his lengthy interview for ‘Autosprint’. “Wanting to be honest, at the level of tactics from the race wall Ferrari in 2022 was at times unwatchable,” Alesi admitted. “The improvements on the track were undeniable, but too many times there were also problems. And it was Mattia Binotto himself who paid for everything.”

On Binotto, in particular, Alesi said he was certain that the former Ferrari team principal had no preference whatsoever. “I am absolutely convinced that he was not rooting for one driver at the expense of the other,” he said. “He simply tried to get the best possible result for Ferrari every time. That sometimes didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean he preferred Sainz to Leclerc. On his good faith I really would not argue.”

“True, some strategies damaged Leclerc, but woe betide the idea that someone was plotting in the shadows behind it. That would be a hallucinating reconstruction, which is not in heaven or on earth,” Alesi added. Who, on the arrival of Vasseur in Binotto’s place, spoke clearly: “In itself it does not change things. What defines the relationship between the drivers is the content of their respective contracts.”