Binotto on receiving end of sensational attack over "unforgivable" errors

Ewan Gale
Friday 30 December 2022 11:00 - Updated: 11:09

Former Ferrari driver René Arnoux has slated the Scuderia for keeping faith with Mattia Binotto despite a series of "unforgivable" mistakes.

Binotto resigned from his position as team principal after Ferrari failed to make the most of a strong start to the season, eventually finishing a distant second to Red Bull in the F1 constructors' standings. His final day is December 30.

It was the manner of the defeat that cost Binotto his place, with a litany of strategic errors threatening to make a mockery of the team, whilst reliability failures took Charles Leclerc out of the lead of a race on more than one occasion.

Binotto has been replaced by former Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur as the Scuderia attempts to patch over its continued struggles.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Arnoux said: “The mistakes he [Binotto] made for me in Formula 1 are unforgivable.

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“I’ve never been on Binotto’s side. Someone who says ‘It will be better next year, it will be better next year’, doesn’t deserve that place.”

Suggesting Binotto should have been replaced “several years ago”, Arnoux added: “I’ve said it several times, behaviour like his is intolerable when you’re at the helm of the best team in the world.

"You may or may not like Jean Todt, but he would never have said ‘It will be better next year’.

"He won, and when he won he thought about next year. But there are few Todts and Ron Dennis' around.”