Jean Todt has just been elected President of the FIA. He’s the first Frenchy in charge since the often hated Jean-Marie Balestre’s senile reign ended over 15 years ago. One thing’s for sure, Todt’s private life couldn’t be more bizarre than Max Mosley’s extra-curricular activities even if he enjoyed collecting goat’s hoofs and claimed to be the Emperor of Neptune.
It also seems every FIA president needs to have some sort of connection to Hitler. Mosley’s dad -as head of the British Fascist Party- had the Fuhrer at his wedding no doubt boring people round the punch bowl and doing an embarrassing jitterbug once the schnapps started flowing. Balestre joined the French SS during the war and later claimed (obviously) that he was a spy for the good guys all along. Yes. So let’s hope Jean Todt doesn’t prove to have an Aunt who financed the Napoleonic wars or invented the U-Boat.
He’s a diminutive Napoleonic figure and above all Todt is a company man, something that might stand him in equally good and bad stead with the teams lining up on the grid next season. He is the man responsible for reversing Ferrari’s fortunes mainly by understanding what an Italian in charge would do and then doing the exact opposite.
That’s unkind to Todt though, as he’s been one of the greatest team managers to ever grace the sport through so many “disciplines” Max Mosley might take interest. It’s a tough call on this one because I would really liked to have seen Ari Vatanen (his opponent in the election) take over the reigns mainly because he’s Finnish. Luckily for Todt the Presidency isn’t decided by a hill climb up Pike’s Peak although it’d make Bernie some more money as a TV spectacular.
Jean Todt had a small role in the live-action film Asterix At The Olympic Games and Ari Vatanen had a major role in the very live action film “Climbdance”. So more similarities between the two than one would think having both had roles in largely unknown French films that I enjoyed. I’m sure we could find Moseley in a few “obscure” roles as well if we trawled his cupboards or CCTV cameras in posh dungeons.
Gavin Williams
Tags: Asterix, Balestre, Climbdance, dungeons, fascist, ferrari, FIA, Hitler, motorsport, Presidency, Todt, Vatanen
