Formula 1: The Ferrari hypocrisy of Jean Todt
By Kevin Nguyen
While in Formula 1 as team principal of Ferrari, Jean Todt made sure F1’s policies benefited Ferrari. But now he wants Ferrari’s influence removed.
The new Formula 1 season is within reach for many F1 fans. There is equal level excitement and concern as teams, drivers, and fans descend on Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia for the Australian Grand Prix to open up the 2018 campaign.
The F1 offseason has been relatively quiet, with teams focused on the upcoming season, but recent comments by FIA President Jean Todt regarding criticism of the Halo and Ferrari’s influence have made the rounds and there’s a glaring discrepancy that needs to be acknowledged — Todt’s hypocrisy.
Todt has been FIA president since 2009, but prior to that, he spent 16 years at Ferrari as general manager and CEO of the Scuderia. He was instrumental in bringing Ferrari back to dominance by helping to recruit Michael Schumacher in 1995, and he was a key player in Ferrari’s prowess in the boardroom.
Todt was the political mind behind Ferrari’s highly successful seasons from 2000 to 2004. In many ways, the Frenchman embodied Enzo Ferrari’s unrelenting stance that Ferrari came before F1 and that without Ferrari there is no F1, which makes his comments about stripping Ferrari of their veto all the more confusing.
As team principal of Ferrari, Todt negotiated pro-Ferrari policies using the threat of the veto if needed. With Ferrari threatening to quit after the 2020 season and a new Concorde Agreement being negotiated, Todt wants Ferrari’s veto scrapped. By suggesting Ferrari’s veto be removed as a bargaining tool, Todt may create more headaches than solve any problems. Strong-arming his former team to accept the new regulations would work had he not used the threat of the veto himself.
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Todt recently ran unopposed for another term as FIA president. As such, there is no mandate for Todt to change the structure of F1, but it appears the 72-year-old is willing to do that if Ferrari quit or at least don’t tow the line.
The former Ferrari executive is still seen by many in the paddock as pro-Ferrari, and such sentiment was repeated following Sebastian Vettel’s relatively light punishment for dangerous driving in Baku, which was upheld by the FIA with no further punishment. Todt told SkySports that the penalty was severe enough, but a similar incident in the future would warrant harsher penalties.
Mere months after that pro-Ferrari judgment, Todt is threatening to come down hard on Ferrari, even going as far as to say that he was against Ferrari’s veto during the last Concorde negotiations in 2013. He recalled the following to Motorsport Magazine:
"“I remember it was a meeting in the FIA headquarters. It was the commercial rights holder [Bernie Ecclestone]. All the teams were there. And I asked what is the position of the veto for Ferrari. They said ‘it was fine for us’. So it would have been inappropriate for me alone to say that I was against the veto right to Ferrari. The only thing we modified was the wording of it.”"
However, even then, the former Ferrari team boss was still hesitant to voice his denouncement of Ferrari’s power in F1, so why start now? Why make it official now with the season so close? Because now it works in his favor and the Ferrari team that Todt left in 2009 is the same one he’s battling, so why give your opponent ammunition if you don’t have to?
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However, Jean Todt better hope this tactic works and no one else in the paddock realizes his hypocrisy before it’s too late.