Ferrari took the opportunity offered by the readjustment of the technical regulations for the 2022 Formula 1 season to become competitive again and fight for victories with Red Bull. Charles Leclerc emerged as one of the contenders for the title after scoring two wins in the first rounds, but as the season progressed, reliability problems, driving errors and strategic lapses have meant that the candidacy for the title of the of Maranello is over.
Max Verstappen and his team came out of the summer break as absolute dominators, and buried Ferrari’s chances of winning the championship, since the Dutchman can win the title in just a few weeks with several races pending.
The director of the Italian team, Mattia Binotto, and his trusted people have received a lot of criticism in recent months for the repeated mistakes they have made.
Speaking to Gazetta dello Sport , Ferrari president John Elkann backed the team boss, but acknowledged that the Italian team must reduce their mistakes: “We have a lot of faith in Mattia Binotto, and we appreciate everything he and Our engineers have done it, but there is no doubt that the work at Maranello, in the garage, on the pit wall and behind the wheel needs to improve.”
“We need to keep making progress and that goes for the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers and obviously the whole management team, including the boss,” he continued. “We have seen that there are still too many mistakes in terms of reliability, driving and strategy.”
“Putting our trust in Binotto and his team was the right decision, and it has paid off. Thanks to them we are competitive and we win again, but I am not satisfied because I think we can always do better,” he explained.
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Elkann continues to believe that Ferrari can achieve its goal of winning the two world titles before the 2026 season, and that proving that building a competitive car for 2022 was the first piece of the puzzle.
“Our first goal was to be competitive,” he said. “If you’re not, you have nowhere to go, while you can always work on reliability, that’s why I think before 2026 Ferrari will win the constructors’ and drivers’ titles again.
“We are lucky to have two great drivers, probably the strongest place [Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez].
