“Protege” Mattia Binotto Branded Perfect to Diffuse Civil War at Alpine After Ex-CEO Laurent Rossi’s Childish Outburst

The F1 silly season is a gift that keeps on giving. Currently, there isn’t a lot of movement in the drivers market, except obviously the Nyck de Vries-Daniel Ricciardo saga. However, there is a lot of action on the back end of the F1 grid. The teams are at each other’s throat poaching personnel from all directions. However, whereas most teams are changing personnel in mid and low-level positions, Alpine made a major announcement by replacing the CEO Laurent Rossi. Now, despite letting go of Rossi, there is a lot of tension between Alpine’s two homes. British journalist Joe Saward believes only one man can diffuse these tensions, Mattia Binotto.

It’s true Binotto could not give the best account of himself at Ferrari. However, this doesn’t discount him as a manager altogether. Saward, in his blog, wrote Binotto can make amends between the two Alpine homes between Enstone and the French one of Viry -Chatillon. The tensions which developed after Rossi’s public rant, which many believed would demotivate the team.

“If anyone knows how to make Enstone and Viry Chatillon sing to the same score, it is Binotto, ” wrote Saward as quoted by Formula Passion. “[Mattia] Binotto is one of the very few executives in the racing sector to have supervised both the chassis and engine divisions at the same time. Like de Meo and Krief, he is a protégé of Sergio Marchionne and knows them both.” [Translated by Google]

Read More: 5 Months After Ferrari Divorce, Mattia Binotto Gets an Unexpected Lease of Life As the Team Principal Roulette Tipped to Resume

Now, we are not sure if this is the opinion of Alpine’s bosses as well. However, the higher-ups at the French team are definitely proactive as showcased by their actions toward Rossi. Although what did exactly Rossi say to cause such a stir?

Ex-Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi publicly called the team amateurish in a rant

After losing Oscar Piatri and Fernando Alonso in a space of weeks followed by a slew of poor performances marred with unreliability, Rossi was full to the brim. So during one of many F1 press conferences, the Frenchman lost the plot and went on a rant against his own team.

Rossi said, “Finally, this year we have started with a performance deficit, on one hand, and also an execution deficit—That’s a lot – and it shows.” He highlighted a bitter truth, saying, “Because we are in a position that is not at all worthy of the resources invested, and we are far – very far—from the final objective of the year.” And eventually concluded with, “I didn’t like the first Grand Prix because there was a lot of—I’m sorry to say this—but dilettantism [amateurishness]… that led to a result that was not the right one, that was mediocre, bad.–And that is not acceptable.”

Such derogatory statements toward one’s own team definitely did not sit well with the Alpine higher-ups. As a result, we will see some more managerial shuffling in F1 soon.

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