AUGUST 17, 2020

Vettel disappointed to be leaving Ferrari says Binotto

Mattia Binotto has continued to play down the obviously fractured relationship between Ferrari and departing former number 1 Sebastian Vettel.

Mattia Binotto has continued to play down the obviously fractured relationship between Ferrari and departing former number 1 Sebastian Vettel.

After again publicly scolding the team's strategic decisions on the radio during the Spanish GP, the quadruple world champion then told Sky Deutschland: "My opinion is no longer important."

Ferrari team boss Binotto responded: "This is a comment motivated by his disappointment at not being part of the team next year.

"When he says something like that, he only wants to express that advice for the future is no longer his business," the Italian added.

Binotto also said that, notwithstanding Vettel's public criticisms, Ferrari ultimately proved to be correct with its strategic choices.

"There are no misunderstandings, but while some other teams do not like it, we prefer to speak openly," he explained.

"There are doubts and questions but if you look at the recent races we can see that the decisions were correct. But discussions are welcome," said Binotto.

However, not everyone agrees with that sentiment, with Ralf Schumacher observing: "Sorry Ferrari, but that doesn't work at all.

"A team fighting for the world championship must manage to communicate properly."

Indeed, Red Bull was also keen to correct the record after Max Verstappen was so vocally critical of team strategic choices on the radio on Sunday.

"Everyone knows how ambitious Max is," said team boss Christian Horner.

"He just wants to attack. But Max doesn't have the full picture available to him that the strategists have.

"I thought his engineer made it very clear to him exactly what his job was," he added.

"We achieved the best possible result today," Horner said after Verstappen split the two Mercedes to finish second.

"Max got everything out of the car, but Mercedes ultimately was faster. We knew that Hamilton was unbeatable here," he said in Barcelona.

Dr Helmut Marko agreed: "We all know Max's temperament that sometimes comes out, but it's silly that it's all broadcast on the air.

"He should leave the strategy to us," Marko insisted.

"It was important to put Bottas behind us, and we succeeded," the Austrian continued. "That was our maximum.

"Splitting the two Mercedes is a success for us here."

(GMM)