MADRID — Former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt will join the field to succeed Max Mosley as president of Formula One’s governing body.
Todt made his candidacy official on Thursday, a day after Mosley had backed the 63-year-old Frenchman to lead FIA as he announced he would not seek a fifth term in October’s election.
“It is my intention to continue and expand the outstanding work of president Mosley, who for 16 years has worked tirelessly to strengthen the FIA’s major motor sport championships,” Todt said in a statement.
Todt is the second candidate to step forward. Former world rally champion Ari Vatanen announced his candidacy last week.
But Todt, who has also worked on FIA’s World Motor Sport Council and on the FIA Foundation’s Board of Trustees, may not be what F1 teams are looking for at a time when the sport is threatening to split away from FIA. Many of the problems result from heavy-handed measures put through by Mosley, who survived a confidence vote last year over a sex scandal involving five prostitutes.
Mosley’s departure was expected to end the rebel series threat, but Todt’s arrival may not soothe an already fractured relationship. The Formula One Teams Association — which represents the eight leading teams, including Ferrari and McLaren — hoped the new president would be an independent candidate.
Mosley backed Todt because it also offers a chance to maintain a role inside FIA as an ex-officio member of the FIA Senate. Mosley said in his letter Wednesday he hoped to play a modest role in Todt’s team.
Todt has already recruited people for key positions inside his cabinet, including current FIA deputy president for the sport side, Nick Craw, and the heads of the New Zealand and United Kingdom automobile associations.
Robert Darbelnet, who represents more than 50 million motorists as president of the United States’ American Automobile Association, said Todt’s candidacy was “pretty predictable.”
“His long association with Ferrari presents issues, especially in regard to presenting FIA’s objective hand as an arbitrator,” Darbelnet told the Associated Press. “It’s not clear to us that Jean would present a degree of change that a lot of stakeholders were looking for.”
Todt has been involved in motorsport since 1966 when he started out as a rally driver before moving to management in 1982.
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