FIA President Jean Todt chooses to ignore Bernie Ecclestone’s comments
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) President, Jean Todt, has recently stated that he is not willing to draw himself into a “war of words” with the CEO of Formula 1 Management, Bernie Ecclestone.
Bernie recently made some statements against Jean’s idea about the 4 cylinder engines which the FIA hopes to bring in starting from the 2013 Formula 1 season as a replacement for the V8 engines in order to decrease the yearly cost of the sport.
Ecclestone recently stated that the FIA’s president is a “poor man’s Max” referring to the former FIA President, Max Mosley.
However, Todt claims that these statements won’t affect him and insists that he is not willing to negotiate regarding the new rules the FIA has decided for the 2013 Formula 1 season.
“The manufacturers agreed [the new rules], the world council agreed unanimously and Bernie is part of the world council. There is emotion, but what is important is never to overreact. I feel confrontation, unless it is necessary to achieve the final result,
loses you time”, Jean told the media.
Other than that, Jean stated that he is going to get the FIA a better deal under the next Concorde Agreement, which is a commercial contract that bounds the teams, FIA, and, the sport’s commercial right holders to work together. This agreement also allocates
annual revenues between the three parties.
The current Concorde Agreement is expected to expire by the end of the 2012 Formula 1 season and it is expected that the negotiations and planning for the next agreement will seriously begin this year.
"I will make sure that everybody realises that since the [100-year] agreement has been signed and now times have changed, technology has changed. 15 years ago you didn't have all the sophisticated electronics you can enjoy today when you watch the TV”, said
Jean.
Todt claims that he will deal with this matter differently as compared to Max Mosley. This is going to be his first Concorde Agreement meeting as FIA President.
Jean believes that “evolution has a price” and as a result, it is expected that he is going to put forward some new ideas for the new agreement.
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