Ferrari appointed Mattia Binotto as team principal on 7 January 2019. The move ended Maurizio Arrivabene’s spell in charge after the 2018 Formula 1 season and signalled a shift in direction at Maranello.
Ferrari appointed Mattia Binotto as team principal on 7 January 2019, promoting the Swiss-Italian engineer into one of Formula 1’s most exposed leadership roles. The decision came after Maurizio Arrivabene left the position at the end of the 2018 season, closing a chapter in which Ferrari had re-established itself as a regular title contender without managing to finish the job.
Binotto was already a central figure inside the team. He had played a major role on the technical side and was closely associated with the improvement that brought Ferrari back into sustained fights with Mercedes. By elevating him, Ferrari was not simply changing the person at the top. It was placing its faith in engineering continuity, internal restructuring and a more technical style of leadership.
That mattered because Ferrari’s 2018 campaign had combined genuine speed with costly mistakes. Strategy calls, operational slips and growing pressure inside the championship battle all contributed to another missed opportunity. As a result, the leadership change carried a clear message: Ferrari believed stronger alignment between technical development and race operations was needed.
Binotto’s appointment therefore stood for more than a routine management reshuffle. It reflected Ferrari’s attempt to convert raw performance into a complete championship-winning structure. At a team where expectations are permanently extreme, that change was immediately significant.
