Ex-Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger believes Ferrari made a mistake sacking former team principal Mattia Binotto, with the Austrian stating that he should’ve been put alongside current boss Frederic Vasseur.
Ferrari holds a very strong place in Berger’s heart given that he raced for the Maranello-based team for six seasons.
Berger completed two three-year stints with the Italians, the first of which stretched from 1987-1989, before he raced for them again from 1993-1995.
In his six seasons racing for Ferrari, Berger claimed five victories, whilst he twice finished third in the Drivers’ Championship.
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He did well at Ferrari and clearly wants to see the team perform to a high standard today, something which hasn’t always been possible.
Under Binotto’s leadership, Ferrari took the fight to Red Bull for the bulk of the 2022 season, before a series of reliability woes and strategic blunders left the side looking red in the face.
It was a massively missed opportunity for Ferrari to return to the top, something which ultimately cost Binotto his job.
Whilst the Italian technically resigned from the role, it was reported that Ferrari’s hierarchy gave him a choice to either resign or be fired.
Ferrari decided to poach Vasseur from Alfa Romeo to become the team’s new boss, making him the first Frenchman to lead the team since Jean Todt.
Todt remains as Ferrari’s most successful team principal, with him having led Michael Schumacher’s dominant reign.
As of yet, Vasseur is yet to really work his magic, with the team only having a few podiums to celebrate.
In terms of their performance, a step backwards has been made, although their poor tyre degradation is a leading factor behind this.
Charles Leclerc also hasn’t been particularly consistent this season, whereas last year he won three races.
A lot of Ferrari’s issues this season don’t really have anything to do with Vasseur, although Berger still thinks it was a mistake letting Binotto go.
Berger thinks Ferrari should’ve had Binotto and Vasseur working alongside each other, given how “complex” being a team principal is these days.
“Difficult to say, at the moment it’s up and down,” Berger told the F1 Nation podcast.
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“I always said I would have felt better if I had been Ferrari to have kept Binotto on the technical side and put Vasseur on the sporting side and tried to split some work and not put everything on one set of shoulders because it’s so complex today to have a successful Formula 1 team, difficult for one man to manage everything.
“But anyway, they chose it this way, and in some ways, you feel they are not as fast as they were last year. Maybe doing a little bit less mistakes, maybe not, I don’t know.
“But the outcome is quite similar and it’s not good enough to beat Red Bull.”