Ferrari will replace current team principal Maurizio Arrivabene with technical director Mattia Binotto, Italian media is reporting.
There have been claims of a feud between the pair for many months now within the Scuderia but they were strenuously denied by Arrivabene last year who suggested the intention of the “fake news” was to disrupt the team.
At the same time, Arrivabene himself was linked with a role at Serie A side Juventus and rumours of Binotto’s exit had also been ongoing.
It is thought the decision to oust the team boss, who arrived in 2014, has been taken by president John Elkann and is linked to a number of management failings at Ferrari which hampered the team’s bid to win the world championship.
A reluctance to follow Mercedes and directly back Sebastian Vettel led to incidents with teammate Kimi Raikkonen at Hockenheim and Monza, two races considered turning points in the battle against Lewis Hamilton.
Strategy errors also continued notably in Singapore to pit Vettel early and in qualifying at Suzuka where the drivers were sent out on intermediates when conditions were still relatively dry.
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Binotto meanwhile has been widely praised for Ferrari’s recent resurgence, having taken advantage of the new rules in 2017 to close the gap to Mercedes and even moved ahead in the engine stakes with an innovative ERS layout.
A veteran of the team dating back to 1995, he is thought to be the best man to lead the Italian team forward into a new era, as Charles Leclerc steps up alongside Vettel, and finally bring championship success back to Maranello, something they haven’t achieved since 2008.
