Todt vs Ari

The elections for the FIA presidency between Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen will take place next Friday.

Jean Todt is the strong favourite having been endorsed by outgoing president Max Mosley and appearing to have the greater popular support.

Todt is also arguably the more well known of the two. This is partly due to the fact that Todt's senior role in Ferrari's Formula 1 team was more visible than Vatanen's exploits as a driver in the World Rally Championship and partly because Todt is engaged to actress Michelle Yeoh.

However, Vatanen has done this:

Equally, Todt ran Ferrari in a very insular and competitive manner during his tenure, in complete contrast with current figurehead Luca di Montezemelo who has taken a very clear role in uniting the Formula 1 constructors.

It is also worth noting that the FIA representatives are not just electing a president on the 23rd of October - they are electing a host of roles.

Before the election, each candidate must present a list of those individuals who will fulfil the 22 roles including Deputy President, seven vice-presidents for Sport and the President and five members of the FIA Senate.

None of these candidates can be present on both lists so when voting for the president, an FIA representative is also assenting to the appointment of all those on the list.

Unfortunately, we are not party to the decision. But we can still listen to what they have to say about themselves:

There does not appear to be any English language videos in the public domain showing an interview with Jean Todt that relates to the FIA presidency

Newbies

This is the first news I have read about the new teams for a while.

How long does it take to create a Formula 1 car? I don't just mean create the first rolling chassis, I mean test the car to the point where it is ready to go racing the next day.


My understanding, based on Toyota's protracted and sometimes controversial testing programme before they joined the grid in 2002, is that it takes considerably longer than all the new teams that are due to enter F1 in 2010 have had since their applications were acccepted.


As a result, I am bit confused as to why we are only just now hearing about one of the teams readying their car. I'm glad to see that it is the Manor Motorsport team as in my mind, they are the most deserving of the three new entries because of their extensive and illustrious experience in motorsport. Any team that ran Hamilton and Raikkonen to lower formulae titles surely deserves to join them on the grid.


The doubts over USF1 appear to have been silenced for a while as Autosport reported this week that they have settled on their European base and the BBC reported that the team had impressed FIA inspectors. However, I'm still concerned that there is no official news on Campos; their substandard official website does not even have a news section.


F1's future is no longer in doubt, but I can't help feeling that Prodrive should have been chosen over Campos and that the former BMW team should be in readiness to replace USF1.

Old Things to Begin With

I am going to try and migrate some of my older articles over from the previous blog. It might be a bit difficult though and things will probably end up in the wrong order, but keep with me.

Here's some articles from my last blog:

Bernies' Medallions (original Feb 2, 2009)

The story that held the most interest for me today was that the FIA has 'revealed' that 13 Formula 1 championships since 1950 would have ended differently had Bernie's medal system been in force since the championship's inception.

Firstly, lets ignore the fact that I would argue a new system of classification should not really be assessed based on the impact it would have previous championships. Lets also ignore the fact that the biggest gainers would have been Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark which would have been nice.

What has interested me about this story is Bernie's claim that a new system would create more excitement for the viewers. He said, in an article published on crash.net, that the championship would have a much greater entertainment value if drivers were forced to fight each other tooth and nail for wins rather than tour round collecting points.

It appears that Bernie is none too happy about the fact that Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 championship. He used the example of the Brazillian Grand Prix last year, when Lewis settled into cruise and collect mode while an inspired Massa drove away from the rest of field, as proof that a radical shakeup is needed.

I believe that Bernie has missed three vital points when taking this stance:

1. The climax of this year's championship was probably the most dramatic of all time. The medal system would have confined Hamilton's incredible pass on Timo Glock at the second last corner of the race as all but academic. As such, I don't understand how fans, other than those who support Ferrari, would have been better served by a medal system.

2. A medal system would either amount to a confusing double tiered points system or a removal of all incentives for those teams not capable of fighting for victory. With Honda already gone, and Toyota and others pondering their future, this is clearly not the best plan in the current climate.

3. The consistency versus race wins formula is what makes motor racing so great. The age old dilemma, for both team and driver, of deciding between a conservative approach or balls out racing has been the cornerstone of competition since racing began. Without trying to undermine my own point about the irrelevance of past championships when assessing a new system - imagine a world without Prost vs Senna, Mansell vs Piquet, perhaps even Massa vs Hamilton. None of these fantastic duels would have been quite what they were if both drivers had always been pushing for the win in every race.

So please Bernie, stop changing the rules every season. Apart from the fact that it devalues the sport and adds to its inaccessibility for those who are new to Formula 1, they are often not brilliant ideas. Let us have our dramatic and championship deciding final lap passes - even if they are for just 5th place.