A few words with Jean Todt in Singapore

Motorsports' chief says he wants the sport to once again emphasise drivers' skill


Barring injury or some other huge misfortune, Michael Schumacher will be flying past City Hall in a Mercedes GP car in the third Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix.There is little doubt motorsports fever has hit Singapore, and new FIA president Jean Todt believes the man he brought to Ferrari in 1996 will light up Singapore streets.

Speaking to MediaCorp, Todt said: "Singapore has been very brave to make something nobody expected, a Formula 1 Grand Prix on the street at night. "Michael's return will push a lot more people to come watch the race. His return has already brought more interest, sales for the Australian Grand Prix has increased by 25 per cent since it was announced."

Todt was in Singapore last week, the first stop on his Asian tour from Feb 12-22. The Frenchman, who turns 64 next Thursday, took time off to speak with local media at Changi Airport's CIP terminal while waiting for a flight to Malaysia, where he was due to spend the Lunar New Year weekend with his partner, Malaysian action star Michelle Yeoh, and her family.A permanent race track just off Changi Coast Road will be ready in 2012 and Singaporeans will then have the prospect of watching a round of MotoGP and other car races. There is talk of Singapore becoming a motorsports hub in the region, and Todt said: "It takes time. The Singapore GP was a big challenge, and now Singapore wants to create another facility in a little country to demonstrate its interest in racing.
"The (Singapore) Government has shown great support to facilitate (the organisation of the Singapore GP) and I'm respectful of the ambitious programmes that are going to happen.

Todt succeeded Max Mosley as chief of FIA, motor sports' world governing body, last October.
Safety is big on his agenda, considering he mentioned it a few times last week."Singapore is a high-tech country with a lot of innovation and Singaporeans are more educated than average. I think it can send a strong message to the world on how to implement excellence in road safety," he pointed out.
Like little Singapore, the slightly-built Todt has big plans for motorsports' crown jewel, the Formula 1 World Championship. "F1 is one of the greatest sports shows ever, and we are aiming for improvement ... moving towards a bigger focus on driver skill and less on engineering," he claimed. Some rule changes have already been implemented for the 2010 season, and a few are in accordance with Todt's aims.
A ban on refuelling during races, as well as the requirement for drivers who participate in Q3 (the top 10 positions on the grid) to start the race on the same tyres used to set grid time, will put less emphasis on team strategy and more on driver ability.
Said Todt: "F1 is definitely a rich sport, there is no doubt, but it costs too much money and the teams understand that there needs to be a change and that is among my top priorities, to reduce cost. "We could face a situation where there are not enough competitors otherwise." There are four new teams this season, taking the total number to 13 from 10 in 2009.
But the new FIA president is aware that Formula 1 has been tarnished by Spy-gate, Lie-gate and Crash-gate."Formula 1 has to remain a sport even if it has a lot of commercial and marketing impact. I will do all I can to make sure that the sport is transparent and healthy," vowed Todt.
"The sport cannot allow (actions that) put drivers, marshals and spectators at risk and in danger."He is not just serious about his job, Todt actually enjoys it. En route for reunion dinner in Ipoh with his partner, he said: "I've always had to work a lot, but if you like what you do, you don't need a holiday."

by Shamir Osman

Fernando Alonso agrees three-deal Ferrari F1 deal

Formula One finally has a rivalry to match Ayrton Senna v Alain Prost after it was confirmed that Fernando Alonso will become a Ferrari driver in 2010.

Renault's two-time world champion, the most successful driver presently on the grid with 21 career victories to his name, joins the Scuderia on a three-year deal worth in the region of £32 million a season with an option to extend.
Race fans will already be salivating at the prospect of a resumption of hostilities with his former team-mate, McLaren's 2008 world champion, Lewis Hamilton. Formula One's two best drivers, one in a Ferrari the other in a McLaren, going head to head with a bit of history between them. It does not get better.

Alonso, who described himself as "very happy and very proud" to be joining Ferrari, replaces Kimi Raikkonen at Maranello, with the Finn's return to McLaren expected to be confirmed shortly.
Raikkonen, too, will be motivated to beat Alonso, having fended off questions about the Spaniard's potential arrival for nearly two years.
Alonso almost signed for Ferrari in 2002, only to change his mind at the last minute and join Renault. It led Ferrari team principal of the time, Jean Todt, to vow that Alonso would never drive for the team while he was there.
Yet despite being Formula One's worst-kept secret, the timing of the announcement actually caught out most observers. Ferrari were expected to say something officially on Thursday, the first day of the Japanese Grand Prix race weekend, but in the end opted to send out a press release at 11pm local time last night.
"As chairman [Luca di] Montezemolo said recently, all the great champions want to come to Maranello sooner or later," Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.
"Of course, we wish to thank Kimi for everything he has done during his time with Ferrari: in his first year with us, he managed to win the drivers' title, thus making his contribution to Ferrari's history and he played a vital role in our taking of the constructors' title in 2007 and 2008.
"Next to Fernando we'll have Felipe Massa, who is recovering very quickly to his best physical condition, with Giancarlo Fisichella as the surrogate driver. We believe that this is the best possible couple for a team like ours: Fernando and Felipe are two victorious drivers and they integrate very well with each other and with the team."
Alonso told Ferrari's website: "I'm very happy and very proud to become a Ferrari driver. Driving a single-seater for the Prancing Horse is everybody's dream in this sport and today I have the opportunity to make this dream come true.
"We already had an agreement this summer starting in 2011, but then, in the past few days, the picture changed and we decided to anticipate my arrival in Maranello by one year."
Raikkonen, who is understood to have reached a financial settlement with Ferrari over the remaining year of his £31 million-a-year contract, said he was "very sad" to be leaving. His move to Woking is understood to be underwritten by Santander, the Spanish banking giant which now sponsors both Ferrari and McLaren.
Jenson Button's 2010 seat at Brawn-Mercedes looks a little safer with rumours that Rubens Barrichello is close to agreeing a deal to join Williams. Nico Rosberg is moving the other way as part of the deal that will see Mercedes take a controlling interest in Brawn. Williams declined to comment on the speculation.

Jean Todt to take over FIA

By anointing Jean Todt as his designated successor, Max Mosley has sent a pretty clear message to the troublesome Formula One teams.
They wanted him out but if they think they are going to get someone more amenable running motorsport’s world governing body, then they can think again.
In fact, they are mistaken if they think they have seen the back of Mosley himself.
As the Briton said in a letter to FIA member clubs on Wednesday, he hopes to play “a modest role” himself in any Todt administration after he stands down in October.
The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) made their position pretty clear last month when Toyota’s John Howett, the group’s vice-chairman, said “we’d like someone independent… independent of any of the teams.”
Their immediate silence to Mosley’s letter was telling. As Alan Henry writes on the Guardian website, it “confirmed a deep-rooted suspicion that Todt is the favoured successor largely because he thinks like Mosley and, perhaps more worryingly for the teams, may act like him too.”
Todt might be seen as a Ferrari man, having presided over the golden Michael Schumacher era at the Italian team, but there is now a very different atmosphere at Maranello to when he called the shots.
In fact, there is a very different atmosphere in Formula One. Period. You only have to look at Mark Webber’s victory for Red Bull in Sunday’s German Grand Prix to see that.
There has been no attempt by the team to rein in the Australian or make him less of a threat to team mate Sebastian Vettel, winner of two races already this season and now Jenson Button’s closest challenger.
Vettel is German, hailed as Baby Schumi and a favourite among the German speaking element at Red Bull. But Webber led the one-two at the Nuerburgring. It was his first victory but the sport was just as much the winner.
As Red Bull boss Christian Horner said afterwards, the only demand the team will make of the drivers for the next few races is to make sure they don’t race each other off the track.
It was never thus at Ferrari, with Schumacher the clear number one.
Among my precious possessions is a tape of the post-race news conference from the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix with Schumacher booed by the media as he walked into the room fortaking an entirely undeserved victory from team mate Rubens Barrichello at Todt’s command.
Barrichello had led from pole position to the last corner, where he slowed and let Schumacher win a race that mattered little for the championship. The outcry was heard around the world.

Todt has done great things in sport, winning world championships and running highly successful operations. Nobody could question his work rate or commitment.

Alan Baldwin