#im sure they would've liked to keep him on as an engineer but he doesn't want that!! he wants power he wants to be king of the hill!!

[leqclerc]

So, it happened. Here’s the thing: Binotto out doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

And no matter which way you spin it he just wasn’t a good leader and should never have been in a Team Principal position, not to mention he certainly should never have occupied the Technical Director and Team Principal position at the same time, that’s madness. But he wanted to be the top dog so bad they let him get what he wants just so he wouldn’t leave. And his tenure was... a mixed bag.

2019 looked promising, until it became obvious that they can’t quite mount a title challenge like they could in previous years. Then the “illegal engine” fiasco. By all means, create an ingenious grey area solution to make your car faster, no problems there. But then have the political prowess to defend it. Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but I can’t see RB or Mercedes being hit so hard by the “illegal engine” saga, I mean, to the point where they end up in the midfield? Come on. Nothing happened with Merc’s DAS, they were allowed to use it for the rest of the year even though the technology officially became outlawed for the future. RB gets away with basically a slap on the wrist for creative accounting. TD039 (this year’s technical directive) was introduced after Mercedes pushed for it. Who did it hit hardest? Ferrari. Like them or hate them, Horner and Wolff are both strong leaders who will pull out all the stops if they see an opportunity for their respective teams, and the consequences are usually minimal.

So, Binotto is given credit for getting Ferrari out of a midfield rut (you can question whether they should’ve avoided ending up in that position in the first place). Great. Carte blanche for 2022, he can do whatever he wants, as long as he delivers the ultimate goal (the championship). Because that... was the goal, at least at the beginning, and it came from his own mouth. Of course, that was the problem with Binotto, this inconsistency, contradiction, constant verbal moving of the goalposts. Maybe a handful of victories is enough. Maybe just showing up to compete is enough. Who knows.

A few promising victories followed by a string of reliability issues (which are, to be honest, forgivable, considering it’s year one of the new regulation cycle), bizarre strategy calls, lack of authority regarding team orders (this is the same man who wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger Piglet when it came to Seb and Charles in 2019 btw, and that wasn’t a title contending year), lack of clear driver hierarchy, modifications that actually make the car slower (but more comfortable for one of the drivers, such success), a dogged defense of said bizarre strategies to the media (including a childish shunning of any journalist who dared disagree that Hungary was a resounding strategic success), patronizing behaviour and frequent undermining comments regarding one’s own driver (the finger-wagging incident and borderline gaslighting whenever Charles suggested the strategy/tyre wear/etc. might’ve been what failed them). And all of that to deliver a grand total of four wins in a twenty two race season (but I thought there’s no reason they can’t win 10 races in a row? 🤔).

Now. Do Ferrari’s problems extend beyond Binotto? Yes. Should they, ideally, continue overhauling the trackside team (starting with Rueda)? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean, however, that one man should be virtually “unfireable,” especially when he proves he’s unfit for the position he currently occupies. Being a skilled engineer doesn’t necessarily make one suitable for a public, media-facing position. He doesn’t have the pull, the charisma, for that. And that’s fine! But it does become a problem when he had insisted on taking that role. Ideally he would’ve returned to the factory to continue being an engineer, resuming his pre-2019 role. Perhaps he was offered such a position, we don’t know. I doubt Ferrari wanted to lose him altogether. Unfortunately, it seems his personal ambition and ego stood in the way of him accepting anything less than full-blooded leadership, which is why he resigned.

[supermaks]

Top 10 essential Verstappen races list please!

I habe been watching since I was a literal infant but I kinda took a break from 2014 until 2018 so I missed a lot of teenage Max lore. Now I treated myself to some f1tv for Christmas and want to rewatch a couple old races!!!

Malaysia 2015 Baby boys first points on his 2nd ever f1 start. Drags that lil toro rosso to q3 and then beats both red bulls. Also very funny to listen to the sky commentary because they dont take him seriously at all but he keeps doing things with that car he shouldnt be able to do so they have to keep talking about him and they're so annoyed about itnklfdjgkfdj

Singapore, 2015 classic max race. car d1es at the start. somehow makes it back on track 1 lap down, waits for his main character moment. gets it on lap 13. breezes past the field. gets told to swap positions. literally yells 'NO' and does not do it. U thought brazil 2022 was shocking, well. Educate yourself

USA, 2015 first of all there was a whole hurricane happening bro like a literal hurricane everything about thsi race is like .. what is going on. Hello. Is that Elton John???? Mind you, its Max's rookie season. Austin with wet conditions is the race track equivalent of a fucking minefield I think like half the grid retired. And still, u will witness that lil boy bring the fight to Merc and Ferrari. He actually fought Lewis and Seb Vettel for a podium. In a toro rosso. yeah

Spain, 2016 anime protagonist race. lil babby makes the jump to the big sister team amid much mockery and controversy, and wins on his debut. I can't say this enough. Max has made a career out of owning up to bitches. Every single time. Mercs take each other out, Danny ric gets inexplicably put on a 3 stopper ((lmfao)), and Max holds off fucking RAIKKONEN on DRS!!!! for like a billion years. Not a wheel out of place. And not even his defining moment of the year. For that, u gotta go with--

Brazil, 2016 He became MOTHER age 19 in Interlagos. Nothing else to say. if ur a verstappie u gotta watch Brazil 2016 like twice a year for ur troubles

China, 2017 just a super underrated race imo. Imma go on a tangent for a bit sorry but one of most insane aspects of Max's move to f1 is that he did so with 1 year of experience in f3. Like f3 had been the strongest engine he'd driven up to that point. f3 cars are fast but they're not f1 fast. So Max was supposed to be like a lil squid in a bowl of sharks. To anybody else it wouldve been extremely intimidating and scary to make that jump and its likely they would've sacrificed speed just because they didn't have that confidence in the car yet. And there'd be nothing wrong with that, thats just normal. Well Max never did normal. Seb put it perfectly and Im pretty sure he's not the first driver to comment on this, but Max goes for moves that nobody in their right mind would even dream of attempting. Shit that takes a special type of instinct, but more than that, a complete lack of fear. And with that comes the other side of the sword, which is the recklessness. Max was a reckless driver. A lot of drivers can be reckless, especially if the car doesn't allow them to just cruise to podiums, but Max was a child. This race is so important in his curriculum because it solidifies that his recklessness is not foolishness, but necessity. Bro passed 9 cars in one lap and held off danny ric with older tires. This after a disaster quali where he finished second to last because of an engine problem. To come back from that and get a podium the way he did, its a character drive. It showed who he was and Max was the future

Mexico, 2017 here. Yeah

Austria, 2018 quali is a must watch for this one. Listening to Max educate his engineers on 'discipline' for even DARING to ask him to pass danny ric prolly makes that move to Renault less confusing. Like u cant fight that. That is not a mf who will ever let u win a world title. But he didnt show it just during quali. This race is important because u can compare it some of his most dominant 2022 victories, in a car that would literally spit out its own tires and explode if Max idk farted or something.

USA, 2018 ok I'm biased but max has never come to the US and not served. Idk why its kind of funny but every time he steps foot in here he stunts and gets super wet and looks amazing. He's also absurdly good in US circuits for no reason. Like Max says, u gotta know how to defend not just attack. Prolly one of the most impressive defensive performances from him here, against none other than sir hammer herself. Lew had fresher tires and a championship winning merc and still couldnt crack lil bro with his renault engine, cap and a dream. Also they literally installed a whole new curb on the track specifically to make drivers stick to track limits and called it the verstopper and that. literal tears in my eyes yk look at this shit

Look at her . anyway

Enjoy thjs humble selection of our fav boy genius/fbi most wanted best hits. Next up

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