Todt wins third term as FIA president

2017 F1 season

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Jean Todt has been elected to serve as FIA president for a third term at its annual General Assembly, held in Paris. He was unopposed in the election.

“Mr Todt was handed a third term in office unanimously by acclamation, and by a show of hands,” said the FIA in a statement.

“It is gratifying to have such universal support,” said Todt following his triumph. “I would like to thank all of the member clubs of the FIA for their support.”

“I see this as a validation of the direction the FIA has taken under my leadership and as encouragement to continue the programme we have pursued over the past eight years.”

The former Ferrari team principal was first elected to the role at the end of 2009 and had served two four-year terms since then.

Todt has made road safety a major focus of his spell as president. However he used part of his re-election speech to stress the importance of the body in regulating motor sport.

“From time to time there are some who challenge this role,” he said, “and I remind them that motor sport will always need a regulator, it will always need fair play, it will always require ethics, and it will always need an independent referee.”

“This is the vital role the FIA plays and one it will continue to play in the future,” he added.

Todt’s predecessor in the role was Max Mosley, who served as president between 1991 and 2009.

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Keith Collantine
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29 comments on “Todt wins third term as FIA president”

  1. And passers-by on the Place de la Corcorde reported the faint, barely perceptible sound of a solitary party popper…

  2. Can’t wait to see what happens in 2021

  3. Is there anyone else even running for this position? There was some other fellow who was vying for the position 4 years ago

    1. Do you mean Ari Vatanen? He’d be far too good at it I’m afraid, that’s not in the ‘DNA’ of F1.

      1. Ari stood for election in 2009. Someone else stood in 2013, but I forget who.

    2. According to the first paragrah, nobody else applied. In fairness, it is necessary to select 22 people to form the cabinet, all of whom must be drawn from the 180-200 (slight variation each year) FIA delegates from the national authorities. So anyone who wants to stand has to have a certain amount of support to make a formal attempt.

  4. Such a joke, what exactly has he done to improve the sport ??

    1. @smudgersmith1 Something many here always ignore is that the president of the fia does more than just deal with f1 & Jean Todt has done a lot outside of F1.

      Jean Todt was a big part of the formation of the WEC in 2012, The 1st time there had been a world sportscar championship for 20 years. He was a part in Formula E getting started up & has done things to help the WRC get out of the irrelevance it was in a few years back when it didn’t even have a full time promoter in 2012.

      And the FIA under his leadership has also played major roles in road safety which have seen continued gains in that area. And of course there is the continued safety improvements brought into F1 & other motorsport during his time.

      Among other things that don’t get the attention of a lot of that.

      1. @RogerAyles +1.

      2. Good of you to remind us Mrs Todt

      3. People don’t ignore those things (although, I thought WEC sprouted mainly from the Le Mans guys, not the efforts of Todt)… we (well, I) just give them far lower priority than things like F1. Seeing as F1 is pretty much the only reason the FIA has any relevance and any money…

        He’s more than welcome to go off posing for photos and spending money on his little vanity projects so him and his wife can win nice awards for themselves… but what matters to me is whether or not he does a good job of looking after F1. And he doesn’t.

      4. +1 to you, Roger Ayles.

        As someone in a developing country, I can say that the Global NCAP programme that was instituted in part due to the FIA has started to make headway in terms of improving vehicle safety. We’ve got a great distance to go, but a start has been made, and auto manufacturers here know that awareness of car safety is increasing so they cannot afford to skimp out on safety.

        That said, F1 is the crown jewel of FIA, and it has to be given the right guidance. It would be good to see the FIA run in a fair manner that benefits Formula 1 economically and entertainment-wise. Don’t do a FIFA with the FIA. Jean Todt has won the election, let him now take steps to win the hearts of us fans as well, in this term.

      5. Hi there Roger Ayles, what on earth has he “done” for endurance racing except kill it with draconian rules, pandering to the ACO and BOP idiocy. He has single handedly supervised the neutering of competition and the destruction of LMP2. That’s his legacy. All he’s interested in is being a big player in the unelected mess that is the EU and his ticket to ride is “road safety”. He drove the Halo forward & you can be sure his cocky little face will be taking the plaudits from Brussels for his ‘progressive’ thinking. I admire the work he did at Peugeot & Ferrari, but no-one should have given him the keys of that lunatic asylum they call the FIA.

        1. +1 again

        2. Except NO the FIA had nothing to do with the new LMP2 regs. That was the ACO trying to protect their suppliers and partners in Oreca and was not an FIA decision. But hey why actually follow the facts when you can deride Todt cause you don’t like him

  5. Jean Todt’s thoughts on leaving Ferrari…….’ Well now, I’ve got a very nice
    retirement pension pot from Luca di Montezemolo and I could improve
    on that with a comfortable sinecure as the head of FIA, shortly to become
    vacant. If I pull all the right levers and promise all the top people in F1
    that I will always look after their interests before anybody else’s, that
    should be a nice comfortable ride to real retirement…….’

    ‘Hey-ho……somebody’s got to do it……so it might as well be me…..!’

    1. @loen
      Todt hasn’t left Ferrari, he was sacked by Marchionne.

      1. But surely you know, Tifoso1989, Monsieur Todt simply
        isn’t sackable by anybody……….!

        He is fixed ( though highly dubious ) asset.

  6. In other news Putin has a similarly hard fought election result

    1. I’m pretty sure Putin at least had an opponent, albeit one who got a surprisingly-to-some-non-Russian-voters low percentage of the vote ;)

  7. Incredible the level of corruption of the FIA.
    The fact that the president himself has three consecutive periods is the perfect example of an organization that needs urgent reorganization.

    1. @jorge-lardone Corrupt in what way?

      He ran for 2 terms & came out the winner both times in a fair vote amongst the FIA members. This time around nobody else bothered to step forward & run against him, People were free to do so & didn’t end of story.

      That isn’t corrupt, It isn’t proof of a need for reorganisation…… It’s a fair & democratic process.

      I think he’s done a fairly good job to be fair, He been more open than his predecessors were & has done a lot more good outside of F1 than his predecessors did. Go and look at how neglected some of the other categories were under Mosley (Something Max has said he regretted) & how much better they have become due to Todt giving them more time & attention. WRC is on the up & at how much growth the formation of the WEC helped Sportscars gain…. Both categories Todt cares deeply about due to prior involvements.

      The halo may be unpopular but its effective according to the investigations done by the FIA safety institute & he should be applauded for going ahead with it despite people that don’t care about safety been unwilling to look past its looks. Other presidents of the fia were weaker in that regard & that is why safety was so slow to take off in the past & why there were so many completely unnecessary death & injury despite things been there that could have prevented them.
      look at indycar, everyone knew that race in las vegas in 2011 was dangerous & stupid but the officials were weak & ignored the warnings & a driver was killed safety is important & i am glad that jean todt takes it so.

      1. “It’s a fair & democratic process.”
        Most ironic words of this affair…

    2. On one hand, it was supposed to be a two-term maximum at this point (in that, Max Mosley put it into the books towards the end of his final term), regardless of popularity or lack thereof. On the other hand, the lack of opponent makes it understandable that Jean may feel compelled to continue, even that wasn’t his original intention back in 2010.

  8. I just threw up in my mouth a little……

    #NoHalo

  9. Wow so much cynicism – is it really less than three weeks to Christmas? Do any of the people here really know what he does on a day to day basis? Unfortunately I don’t but the tone here feels envious and negative.

  10. Funny thing, I still remember him saying, back in 2009 when he was running for the first time, that he will only do one term. He said anything more than that is insane, and that he would only consider running for the second term if he really felt he can contribute and he had some bigger plans that still needed attention.

    And, now, fast forward 8 years, in 2017, he is elected for the third term, running unopposed, and I can’t for the life of me see what made him think he did anything worth the second term, let alone the third one.

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