What do Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto and Italian-Egyptian footballer Stephan El Shaarawy have in common? A particular nickname that has been given to both, even if with very different reasons.
Not a very happy season for Matthias Binotto. The team principal of Ferrari he received a lot of criticism for the technical and strategic management of Ferrari in the 2022 vintage. The results speak for themselves: some of the methods chosen to manage the races and the Grands Prix did not convince.
It is no coincidence that the Ferrari came second in both the 2022 constructors’ championship, outclassed by Red Bullboth in the driver one with Charles Leclerc who paid for imperfect team choices in comparison with Max Verstappen. The Dutchman swept the world championship with several races to go.
Binotti is in the eye of the storm. Recently the historic former president of Ferrari Luca Cordero di Montezemolo he shot zero against the current team principal, defining the Maranello team “without a leader and without real leadership in command”.
To talk about Matthias Binotto and even an expert in the sector thought of its not very brilliant management. The chronicler Leone Turrinitrue connoisseur of the world of engines. On the podcast Pit stops Turrini has revealed a particular background.
Turrini and the surprising revelation: “Binotto is called the Pharaoh”
Leo Turrini recounted that, in Ferrari environments, Binotti received a particular and rather significant nickname: “Within the team there were not a few who called Binotto the ‘Pharaoh‘. The reason concerns the double job he has at Ferrari, i.e. technical manager and also team principal”.
Actually the ‘Pharaoh’ Binotto he is the only character in current Formula 1 to split between both duties. The other teams participating in the world car championship have two different figures within the team, one who deals with technical management, the other who is more attentive to FIA regulations and general strategies.
The Egyptian-style nickname of the Pharaoh has already been awarded in the world of football. In other words, the forward for Roma and the Azzurri national team Stephan El Shaarawi. But for very different reasons from those related to Binotto: if the Ferrari team principal has been labeled like this for the centralization of powers, the 30-year-old footballer has received this reputation for his clear Egyptian origins.
Turrini and the criticisms of Binotto
Turrini then went on to talk about Binotto’s double role at Ferrari: “Today, in F1, there is only Ferrari to have this centralization in the figure of Pharaoh Binotto. It was a mistake, I wrote it and said it then. But not because Mattia didn’t have the skills, but because it’s impossible to do both well. For Red Bull, for example, Chris Horner and not Adrian Newey go to discuss regulations; Wolff goes for the Mercedes and James Allison takes care of the technical issues. A mistake was made but it was made by Elkann and the top management of the company at the time. I’m not saying that Ferrari hasn’t won the title in these four years because Binotto held the double role, I’m saying that it was a choice that, as could easily be predicted, turned out to be unfortunate.
