“Cursed Charles’ Career”: Ferrari Outcast Mattia Binotto’s Return Enrages Leclerc Fans as Ex TP Arrives in F1 Paddock

Racing drivers and Ferrari – A combination that has stopped working in recent years. Ferrari always gets the best racing talent onboard and makes a mess of their careers. From Sebastian Vettel to Charles Leclerc to Carlos Sainz, all of them have had a tough time driving for the Maranello team. But just when things seemed to be looking up for Leclerc, an unwanted guest in Silverstone spoiled the start of his race weekend.

In 2019, Ferrari had 2 major changes to the team. One was Charles Leclerc replacing Kimi Raikkonen. And the other one was the team promoting Mattia Binotto as the Team Principal. But those changes were no good. Leclerc and Mattia Binotto were another combination that never worked. During those 4 years, strategic errors plagued the team. As a result, Leclerc could never get close to winning the WDC, and Ferrari was never close to a Constructors championship.

Binotto received a lot of criticism for destroying Leclerc’s racing career by making poor decisions. Eventually, after 4 years of leading the team, Binotto resigned from his post at the end of 2022. However, Ferrari was still very inconsistent and struggled to get good points. But at the Austrian GP, they achieved the best result of the season with Leclerc getting P2. And the British GP should be better. But the hopes are already down after Leclerc could not even participate in FP2.

After the end of 2022, Binotto had not been seen anywhere near F1. But lo-and-behold, he visited the Silverstone paddock on Friday. And to Leclerc’s wonder, his SF-23 had an electric problem rendering it useless. So, FP2 was a bust with him not being able to register a single lap. Could it be that there is some connection between Binotto’s appearance and Leclerc’s woes increasing? Tifosi thinks that this cannot be a coincidence.

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Let us look at what could be termed a coincidence, but is not. All it took was one person to point out the connection and thousands of others joined the ‘slam Binotto’ party.

The Mattia “Binotto Effect” Enrages Fans as Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari Suffers Electric Failure

In FP1 on Friday, both Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz, and Charles Leclerc, successfully completed 25 laps. And the result was decent as well, with the Monegasque getting P5 and the Spaniard, P7. However, what happened in FP2 was a mystery. While Carlos Sainz was able to complete 29 laps and be 2nd fastest, Leclerc did not make it out of the garage. And keep in mind the time gap between the 2 practice sessions is just 2 hours.

How did the team mess the car up in that small window? As per Leclerc’s fans, it was Binotto’s “Evil eye” that cost him.

One of the fans only believed in profound violence. Here’s their reaction:

Some of them even went as far as wishing for someone to take Binotto out of the circuit.

Earlier, fans were slamming the FIA for allowing Brad Pitt to drive on-track for the live shooting of his movie. But, even that is being preferred over Binotto’s temporary presence.

A couple of reactions with Marvel and DC references have made the cut too:

Why can’t there be at least two consecutive races where Leclerc looks happy? Hopefully, before the Qualifying session today, Ferrari can get their issues sorted.

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