Former Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene gave an intriguing response when a fan made clear his desire for current team principal Mattia Binotto to be replaced.
The current team chief is under pressure after an underwhelming season for the Scuderia. It started so well, with a one-two victory in the Bahrain curtain-raiser before a second win for Charles Leclerc in the third race of the season.
But even though their car was able to compete with Red Bull in terms of performance, things started to go wrong for Ferrari. Engine reliability issues, awful strategy decisions and no small amount of bad luck mean they will finish a long way behind the runaway champions.
As is normal when fans of any team are left disappointed by results, much of the blame has been laid at the team principal's feet. After failing to mount a convincing title challenge this year, some fans would like to see Binotto replaced.
That much was made clear when footage emerged of his predecessor Arrivabene, who now works in football as chief executive of Serie A giants Juventus, responding to a fan's feelings on the issue. The clip shows a man mumble "Binotto out" as the Italian walked by while flanked by security.
After pausing for a moment, Arrivabene turned around to smile and not at the man, sparking a ripple of laughter among the small crowd. A few seconds later he turned around again, still wearing the same grin, to shake his head and wave, as if to say he had been joking.
Despite that clarification, some fans on social media were quick to react to the clip. Some advocated for the 65-year-old to be reinstated four years after losing the team principal job to Binotto, including one who wrote: "If I were given the choice between a victory for [Carlos] Sainz or the return of this man, I would choose the second option without a doubt."
In September, once it had become clear that Ferrari's title challenge had faltered, Ferrari chairman John Elkann gave something of an ominous warning to Binotto despite backing him. "We have great faith in Mattia Binotto and appreciate everything he and all our engineers have done," he said.
However, he then added: "But there is no doubt that the work in Maranello, in the garage, on the pit wall and at the wheel needs to improve. We must continue to make progress and that goes for the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers and obviously, the entire management team, including the team principal. We have seen that there are still too many mistakes when it comes to reliability, driving and strategy."
