When I first heard Ferrari had appointed Mattia Binotto as team principal in place of Maurizio Arrivabene, I thought the team was mad. And a week on, I still believe this to be correct - and not because I don't think Binotto is very capable.
Binotto took over the technical management of Ferrari's 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engine project as part of a reshuffle announced at the end of July 2014. This was at a point where Ferrari's initial concept was nowhere near a match for Mercedes. Through 2015 and '16 his team made great strides, and in '17 and '18 the engine was a match for Mercedes. So a job very well done.
In the middle of 2016 there was a major reshuffle on the chassis side and he became the chief technical officer. This made him responsible for both the chassis and engine, so he was a true technical director - or perhaps a better description is technical manager.