Most people spend 26 years at a company and at least sit in one of their products. Mattia Binotto spent 26 years at Ferrari, becoming its Team Principal, and had never once driven a Ferrari road car. That changed in 2019 under circumstances that were equal parts triumphant and catastrophic.
The story surfaced on the Pitstop podcast this month, and it’s one of those rare moments where a man who built a reputation for precise, technical seriousness reveals something genuinely, painfully human. Then-CEO Louis Camilleri had apparently been nudging Binotto for a while to actually get behind the wheel of something with a Prancing Horse on the hood. Binotto’s response was to make a bet: win a race first, then he’d drive one. Charles Leclerc promptly delivered the 2019 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Ferrari’s first home win in nine years, and Camilleri called it in.
The Car He Chose, and How That Went
Binotto’s selection wasn’t exactly conservative. The Ferrari 488 Pista is powered by the most powerful V8 engine in the Maranello marque’s history, with a 720 hp V8 and an F1-derived S-Duct aerodynamic system. It hits 60 mph in under three seconds and is, objectively, one of the least forgiving cars Ferrari has ever handed to someone for a casual evening commute. That’s exactly what Binotto attempted to do with it.
He said on the podcast: “I never drove a Ferrari. No. So twenty-six years… And at the time it was Camilleri, our CEO, told me, ‘Mattia, but you should drive it.’ ‘Okay, let’s let’s win a race.’ And then we won in Monza 2019. He said, ‘Now you can choose a Ferrari and drive it.’ Oh my God. So I choose the 488 Pista. I went home, but through my way home, I crashed.”
The call that followed wasn’t a highlight of his career. “I had to… I got a problem.’ Oh God. He wasn’t happy. That’s why I really not… I was not proud of me, you know? Just, they give you… ‘just enjoy, go,’ and you crash. Your fault isn’t it.”
The podcast hosts, understandably, lost it. Binotto delivered the whole thing with the quiet, pained dignity of a man who has clearly run this sequence of events over in his head many times since.
From Maranello to the Audi Pit Wall
Binotto served as Ferrari’s Team Principal from 2019 to 2022 before eventually resurfacing as the CEO and Team Principal of the Audi F1 Project in 2026.
In March 2026, he assumed additional responsibilities as Team Principal, taking leadership at the race track of the Audi Revolut F1 Team.
He appeared on the Pitstop episode wearing Audi team gear, promoting the German manufacturer’s full works entry into Formula 1 this season – quite a different chapter from the one that ended with a 488 Pista in a ditch.
Whether Camilleri ever offered him a second car is, sadly, not part of the story. Given what happened to the first one, probably wise.