Binotto: Managing drivers is also new to me

Leclerc arrived in the team like a breath of fresh air at the start of this season, fast and determined he has forced Vettel to raise his game but, for now, he appears to have been rendered wingman to the four-time F1 World Champion by his team who all but neglect him at times.

During an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Binotto was not afraid to admit, "The task of managing drivers is also new to me. But I've been in F1 for 25 years now and experienced a lot of drivers from the perspective of an engineer, so it's a really good experience to know what to expect."

"I think I'm lucky with my drivers. Both are fast and both are team players. But just to make it clear, the fact that we're backing Sebastian and putting pressure on Charles is a side effect of this campaign."

Indeed the Monegasque has been neutered and even sacrificed for his teammate's sake, to the point of forgotten in the tactical warfare played out on race weekends, for example in Canada.

On lap 48 Vettel made his win-denying mistake, and a few laps later he knew he had a five-second penalty and victory would not be his despite having led from the start. At that point, Leclerc was 13.5 seconds adrift of the leaders.

Right then the team could have switched focus on Leclerc who would have benefitted from a call to pick up his pace while a signal to Vettel to baulk Hamilton would have been ballsy and almost expected from any racing team.

A Leclerc attack on Hamilton with some help from the #5 car at the front might have changed the outcome of the race had the pitwall been thinking on their feet rather than engulfed in the Vettel saga and his histrionics.

When the race ended Leclerc was 7.5 seconds down on the pair at the front, his team had 20 laps to bring him into play but simply "forgot" to engage him.

Binotto again was blatantly honest when he admitted after the race, “It was a mistake from our side. We were very busy on the pit wall. We forgot. We should have done it but we didn’t.”

Nevertheless, he remained firmly behind his team, "One can always argue about strategy decisions. Afterwards, everyone is smarter. Ten people have ten views but in the end, one has to make a decision, and then there is only one."

"In retrospect, we might have acted differently here and there, but it would be wrong to take stock now. Many things balance each other over the course of a season. We might have been able to tweak some things, but I would not speak of mistakes in these cases," he added.

It is hard to recall a Ferrari team chief 'airing their dirty laundry' and admitting the rookie-like shortcomings of his team.

In contrast, Maurizio Arrivabene operated from a fortress of no-information and, before him, his predecessors were either secretive, deviant or elusive - or all three at the same time, but none as honest as the 49-year-old who currently leads the Scuderia.

Meanwhile, in Italy, there is a call for Ferrari big bosses - John Elkann and Louis Camilleri - to emerge from the shadows to back their man Binotto as he is far too stretched leading the world's most famous racing team and the inevitable pressure that comes with it.

Begging the question: Does Binotto not need a Niki Lauda-style partner in the pit garage to help steady the ship and help with the loads of fluff that comes with the job? Gerhard Berger springs to mind...

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/06/17/binotto-we-developed-the-car-in-the-wrong-direction/