F1 CEO says Binotto deserves support, not criticism

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has backed current Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto over claims that heads should be rolling at Maranello.

2016 world champion slammed the Italian team after Zandvoort, insisting that even Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams have handled race strategy and pitstops better than Ferrari in 2022 so far.

"It is easy to criticise from both inside and out," Domenicali, who headed Ferrari until he resigned under pressure in early 2014.

"But I believe that at the moment all Ferrari people must support Mattia Binotto," he insisted.

"After that, I do not allow myself to judge the choices that president John Elkann and Binotto will have to make to obtain the results they deserve."

However, Ferrari’s problems this year with reliability as well as driver, strategy and pitstop mistakes have given Max Verstappen and Red Bull the clear air to utterly dominate.

"For this big gap between first and second, we need to evaluate the specific role played by reliability and management," Domenicali told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"But overall, the gaps behind are smaller than in the past leaving us with duels that promise to only be concluded at the very end."