Felipe Massa has warned Mattia Binotto that if he doesn’t change how things are going at Ferrari, he’ll pay the price.
The Italian team have produced their best car in years this season, with their 2022 challenger often the fastest on the grid.
Despite that though, they trail Red Bull by a considerable amount in both standings, and they only have themselves to blame.
Binotto and co have made a number of errors during races, with the strategies they have put their drivers on being heavily criticised.
READ: Mattia Binotto responds to Ferrari ‘bad luck’ claim as Charles Leclerc’s frustration grows
On multiple occasions, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have lost at least one position on race-day because of such strategies.
Binotto himself has defended the team, saying he thinks they’ve often got things right in that area and have been on the end of a lot of bad luck.
Many feel he’s blind to the problems the team faces and have called for him to be replaced, but Massa only has good things to say about his own experiences of working with the Italian.
“I know him very well. I raced for him already and we worked together for a very long time,” the Brazilian said on Sky Sports.
“He was an engineer of the engines and then he became the boss of the engine side. When he [became] the Technical Director, and also Team Principal, I was not there anymore. But he’s a very good engineer.
“He’s a very professional guy. He understands a lot on the technical side. He’s also a good guy, to be honest. I like him as a person as well.”
However, the former Ferrari driver also acknowledges that the team principal needs to turn things around quickly.
While he doesn’t think the team’s issues have been entirely his fault, he thinks he could lose his job if they aren’t fixed.
“At the end, you understand that the result is not coming the way it should,” Massa continued.
“We cannot definitely blame [Binotto], but at the end, we need to say that he’s part of it.
“They definitely need to be a little bit more calm for the decisions and understand what is not happening, because many mistakes that happened at the beginning of the season in terms of strategy are still happening. This is something that cannot [happen].
“He needs to change things in a quick way, otherwise he can pay for it.”
All is not quite lost for Binotto and co yet with Leclerc still second in the Drivers’ Championship despite all of the issues he’s encountered.
However, with the gap to Max Verstappen standing at 80 points, the Dutchman and Red Bull will surely have to run into trouble of their own if the title is to return to Maranello for the first team since 2007.