Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto admits he has had a “difficult” season in 2022.
Charles Leclerc clinched second place in the championship in the final race of the season as Ferrari secured the same position in the constructors’ table.
But the team has been criticized for mistakes and reliability issues that torpedoed Leclerc’s title campaign.
“It was definitely difficult because criticism is never easy to deal with,” Binotto said.
“More than that, for me, I try to keep the team focused and focused on the job.
“Critics are there to distract the team. And keeping a team focused is never easy.
“It was difficult, but it will only make me stronger in the future. We only have to rely on ourselves and that is the most important lesson of the season.”
It is expected that Binotto within F1 will be replaced as Ferrari team principal in the coming weeks.
Multiple sources have said reports in Italian media last week that Binotto would be replaced by current Alfa Romeo team boss Frederic Vasseur are accurate.
But Binotto says he is “relaxed” about his future after talks with chairman John Elkann, and he told BBC Sport in Abu Dhabi he would be “very, very surprised” if removed from office.
Leclerc took on a challenge from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for second place in the championship after the two entered the race on equal points.
Ferrari’s decision to go for a one pit stop strategy over Perez’s two paid off and Leclerc crossed the line 1.3 seconds ahead of the Mexican, who had closed in during the final stage of the race.
Overall, however, it’s been a tough year for Ferrari’s strategists, costing Leclerc potential victories with mistakes at Monaco, Silverstone and Hungary.
Engine failures in Spain and Azerbaijan also derailed a championship campaign which began with Leclerc taking a 46-point lead over eventual champion Max Verstappen after just three races.
But Binotto tried to put a bright positive on the year.
“What was important for us was to get competitive again and that was the goal,” he said.
“And to fight for a good position in the 22nd race is the best result because it means that we were not only competitive at the very beginning, when we had a very solid car and nobody expected it, but we kept fighting until the end.
“We had ups and downs. There are a lot of races where we weren’t good enough and we’ll see that again. But more than a P2 – and this is important – it’s that at the 22nd race we are still fighting for positions in the final race.”
He added: “Our ups and downs have come from different areas. Reliability, I would put that first because to win you have to be reliable and that hasn’t been the case.
“The second is the speed of the car, because while we were very competitive in qualifying, that wasn’t always the case in the race.
He said he would review how Ferrari approached development as the season progressed, having started the year with a car as fast as the Red Bull only to eventually lose pace inexorably.
“In terms of development, Red Bull had a clear plan which was to reduce the weight of the car, which we didn’t, and they knew what to tackle to take advantage of the performance of the car,” said said Binotto.
“For us it was more complicated because it was more through aerodynamic development and trying to improve the car, the concept and the aero.
“If I look back, the development we did was not enough. We stopped very early for expense reasons and that’s something we need to review.
“Did we make the right choice by stopping so early in terms of priority between 2022 and 2023? Only 2023 will tell us which was the right choice.
