Toto Wolff rules out employing F1 rival Mattia Binotto for Mercedes: “Too much broken porcelain between us"
Binotto will 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:leave his position as Ferrari team principal at the end of the year after four seasons at the helm following the🉐 Italian outfit’s failed title bid in 2022.
Despite enjoying his best season as Ferrari team boss, a catalogue of operational and strategic errors, reliability failures and driver mistakes allowed Red Bull and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen to run away with both world championships, prolonging the Scuderia’s long wait for F1 silverware.
Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Wolff admitted he was surprised by how long Binotto held onto the position before “the 💙unavoidable happened”.
“It was alwไays clear that 📖he was under tremendous pressure,” Wolff said.
“Being team principal at Ferrari, you better have a good con✤tract for your exit. Now probably the unavoidable happened, but he held onto it longer than I thought.”
🔯Wolff acknowledged there is “absolutely” more pressure that comes with being in char♏ge of F1’s most famous team.
“In representing Ferrari you are represen🐼ting the whole country,” Wolff said. “They write you up and they write you down, but with brutality.🅷
“Certainly team principal of Ferrari, as an Italian probably even more. Because as a foreigner you don’t rꦕead the news.
“B🅠ut as🌟 an Italian, you are in the firing line.”
Asked if there is a chance that Binotto could find himself landing a role at Mercedes or their High Performance Powertrains🎃 division, Wolff replied: “No. I think there was too much porcelain broken between us over the last few years, that this would be possible.”
On their strained relationship, Wolff added: “I think that Mattia and I had our moments, it’s no secret over these many years. But in a way we consolidated that in 2022.💃 We were in a much, much better place.”
Could Wolff have ended up at Ferrari?
Wolff was also asked if he would have enterta🔯ined an offer from Ferrari pr﷽ior to joining forces with Mercedes in early 2013.
The Austrian, who now 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:owns a third of Mercedes’ F1 team, a🌠dmitted he would have previously been interested in a move to Maranello had Ferrari made him a offer.
“Well everybody who says he isn’t intereste𝄹d in being team principal at Ferrarꦯi just simply doesn’t tell the truth,” Wolff said.
“I had to pinch myself until today that Daimler gave me the opportunity to become managing partner and co-holder, it’s so🐬mething that I feel tremendously proud of.
“But equally, if Ferrari had come around the corner and miraculously offered me such a꧒ position, it would have been the same.”
Lewis regularly🧔 attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.co𒀰m around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
