Binotto leaves pit wall seat as Ferrari completes reshuffle
The Ferrari Formula 1 team has completed a planned reshuffle of its management personnel, with a new head of strategy taking up the job in Azerbaijan this weekend.
As a result of the changes, team principal Mattia Binotto moves from the pitwall to the garage, but only because of the limited number of seven seating positions that teams are allowed.
While most team principals still watch track action from the pit wall, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been in the garage for several years. Binotto is also not planning to be at all races this year, as previously announced.
Ferrari's new strategist is 26-year-old Briton Ravin Jain, who has been with the team since 2016. He takes over the role from Inaki Rueda, who now has the sporting director job.
"When we launched the new structure in February we said Laurent is taking the role as racing director," a Ferrari spokesman told Autosport. "And Inaki Rueda was going to take the role of sporting director, while remaining the head of strategy.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
"So for the first part of the season we've done a process where step-by-step Inaki was taking that responsibility, shadowing Laurent.
"Now this process has come to a point where he is fully in charge of that. And as racing director Laurent is overseeing everything that happens on the track side.
"The other novelty is that Ravin Jain will be in charge of strategy, and he will be on the pit wall."
Jain is an Oxford University graduate who has a first class degree in physics, and a distinction in a master's degree in mathematical and theoretical physics.
In 2013, he briefly had a summer job at Caterham working on data processing while still a student, and the following summer worked at Williams on software design in the strategy department.
He then had a third summer job at Ferrari in 2015, working on strategy and mathematical modelling, before joining the team in 2016 on finishing his studies.
"He is a very young engineer, and he was selected through the Ferrari Engineering Academy," said the team spokesman. "So in his way it's in parallel to the career that Charles [Leclerc] has had in the Driver Academy.
"We are happy that you can see that people can grow up in the team and take more and more responsibility. You can have an opportunity without having to come from different teams, and so on."
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