Jean Todt is taking over from Max Mosley as head of the FIA, I’m really not sure there will be much of a difference. Todt spent a lot of time separating himself from Mosley, especially after Mosley endorsed him prior to the FIA election.
Todt is a former WRC codriver and has successfully run teams in rally, F1, sports cars and cross country raids. His racing resume is not in question.
I do believe he’s as qualified as anyone for the position. I don’t think too many people will argue that part of it, based on history it’s claiming to be the candidate of consensus that’s a little difficult to understand.
He does not exactly have a history of working together for the best interest of everyone and creating harmony. As Ferrari and Peugeot boss he was known for being the only “Non” in the room when it was not in the best interest of his team, no matter what it meant in the bigger picture.
As a team manager went to the extent of taking the FIA through the courts because they banned group-B rally cars after a number of fatal accidents. Peugeot had invested heavily in the series and wanted the class to carry on; he felt Peugeot were being punished for the indiscretions of others as no one had died in one of his teams cars.
Todt is one of the true masters of talking for hours with out actually saying anything, he will running one of the most political organization in the world. It was once said (Nigel Robuck perhaps?) that when the FIA politics get going it makes the houses of parliament look like a kindergarten.
Interestingly Todt talked a lot about having commissioners run the various FIA world championships (WRC, F1, touring cars, endurance racing and so on) and the role of the FIA president would be confined to the strategic direction of the organization. I’m not sure how far he will actually be able to distance himself from F1. Under Max the president and F1 were closely connected, but the appointment of someone both Todt and the teams can work with to run the sport would be a good start to actually putting some space between himself and Max.
Max was the lawyer for the F1 constructors and drafted the first Concorde agreement that ended the so called FISA/FOCA was in the 80’s and stopped a breakaway F1 championship. He really was intimately linked to F1 over every other series. I do like the irony that the threat of another team run independent series was at the heart of his replacement of FIA boss.
As we loose a character in Max, the sport gets another of its grandees back. It could be good, it could go bad, but it won’t be dull.