Ferrari structure worse than Mercedes, Red Bull - Gerhard Berger

Ferrari

Ferrari structure worse than Mercedes, Red Bull - Berger

Do they need more bodies in the building?

Matthew Scott

Sunday 21 April 2019 14:21

Former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger is concerned that current Scuderia team principal Mattia Binotto may be spread too thin by combining his new role with his current job as technical director. Binotto has led recent gains made by Ferrari on the power unit side of development, leading to his promotion to fill the gap left by Maurizio Arrivabene's departure.

Having served as a test technician in Ferrari's 90s/00s heyday, Binotto has gradually worked his way up the ranks until he was promoted to the top job for 2019.

However, with an aerodynamic failing seeing the SF90 fail to display its true power across the first three races, Berger pointed out that Ferrari's current staff is in star contrast to their rivals.

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"The usual thing with Ferrari is, someone getting the responsibility, and getting all responsibility," Berger said.

"Because when you look at Red Bull, you have this genius Adrian Newey. You have a capable [team principal] Christian Horner. Then you have the shark Helmut Marko.

"Then you look to Mercedes: Toto [Wolff], very capable. You have the genius on the engine side, Andy Cowell. And you have Niki [Lauda], unfortunately not here now.

"At Ferrari you see Binotto. I don't know if this is enough.

"I think Binotto is a great technician. It's just [important] he doesn't use too much time for maybe political discussion or whatever, and then running out of time for the main [part of his role]."

The structure is in contrast to Ferrari's glory days when Jean Todt was the political chess-player as team principal, above technical gurus Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne and with Michael Schumacher in the car.

"One of his big strengths was he knew how to put people together to get the maximum out of them," Berger said of Schumacher.

"When he went to Ferrari and said, 'Ross, you're coming with me, Rory, you're coming with me.' In this he was very good, and in this he has an advantage over Sebastian [Vettel]. Michael was fantastic in collecting people for his team.

"Again you had three people: you had Rory, the genius of the time, you had Ross, and you had Jean Todt, who dealt with the political side and the regulations.

"I just don't know who is going to take certain roles in Ferrari, because if it's all on Binotto, it's going to be a bit heavy."