Cesare Fiorio: Ferrari is doing something wrong

Cesare Fiorio is a legendary figure in Italian motorsport. Now 83 years old, and of course he has had a well-deserved rest for a long time, but he once rose to fame as the sports director of the factory teams of Lancia and Ferrari.

The Lancia team under his leadership won the World Rally Championship on more than one occasion and in 1989 Fiorio became the sports director of the Scuderia. However, the moment for this was not the best and we can say that he indirectly fell victim to the disagreements that arose between Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, who played for Ferrari in 1990. This is another story, but Prost missed out on the title that year and before the start of the next season Ferrari terminated the contract with Fiorio, although he spent several more Grands Prix with the team.

However, he never lost touch with the motorsport world and was constantly addressed as an expert by the Italian race press. This time, in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Fiorio commented on the situation Ferrari finds itself after the early part of the 2022 season.

“In general, it must be admitted that Mattia Binotto has made the Scuderia a team that can fight for victory in any race,” said the motorsport veteran. – Binotto is an excellent engineer, especially an engine specialist, then he became technical director, but now he has a very different job. Of course Ferrari is doing something wrong, the team makes mistakes and Binotto has to fix all this. This is now his main task.

I think all kinds of advanced ideas like a remote command center are all bullshit. At the base in Maranello, there is a special area where specialists work during the Grand Prix, whose job it is to help the race team work on the track. But in reality, it just complicates things.

Decisions separating wins and losses should be made in seconds, and should be based on the professional experience of race team strategists and their instincts, not tens of thousands of computer operations. At the same time, there were always plenty of know-it-alls, comfortable at home on their sofas and not feeling the pressure that prevails on the racetracks.

Racers in the team’s failures can not be blamed. Ferrari has great drivers – I think they are both in the top 5 of Formula 1. Leclerc is incredibly fast in qualifying and Sainz is great at racing. Both are good enough to see the Scuderia win the Constructors’ Championship. Personally, I would never change such a strong line-up.

Mattia Binotto now has to find some solutions that will allow the team to improve their work. In modern Formula 1, you have to do everything almost perfectly to get victories. In the days of Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher, it was a little different. Then Ferrari cars sometimes had such a clear speed advantage that it was possible to compensate for some mistakes. Now this is impossible.”