Ferrari axes Arrivabene, Binotto promoted

Scuderia Ferrari has confirmed that its former team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, is leaving the team. Italian media broke the news this morning before the team released a short statement, marking Binotto as his replacement.

"After four years of untiring commitment and dedication, Maurizio Arrivabene is leaving the team," said Ferrari on Monday afternoon.

"The decision was taken together with the company’s top management after lengthy discussions related to Maurizio’s long term personal interests as well as those of the team itself.

"Ferrari would like to thank Maurizio for his valuable contribution to the team’s increasing competiveness over the past few years, and wish him the best for his future endeavours."

Rumours were swirling for months, with reports of increasing disagreements between Arrivabene and technical chief Mattia Binotto. The latter, a touch character who has worked his way up through the ranks at Ferrari, will now assume the Team Principal role.

"With immediate effect, Mattia Binotto will take over as Scuderia Ferrari’s Team Principal. All technical areas will continue to report directly to Mattia."

Binotto, a Swiss born graduate of Lausanne's Polytechnic university, joined Ferrari in 1995 and gradually moved up to become chief operating officer of Ferrari's power unit department in 2014. Since then, Ferrari made great strides to close the performance gap to Mercedes AMG F1, making Binotto the favoured new team principal.