Former FIA president Jean Todt has mentioned he isn’t stunned to have been criticised by his successor, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and has disputed a number of the claims made by the present FIA president.
Earlier this 12 months, Ben Sulyaem claimed there have been funds points for the FIA, saying: “There was a monetary subject that we did not find out about. We had a deficit, even earlier than the pandemic, however I am happy to have cleared that.”
Ben Sulayem, who changed Todt on the finish of 2021, has additionally mentioned the cash in query was “over $20 million” and complained the early months of his time in cost had been dominated by a patent dispute over the Halo cockpit safety system which had been put in onto all F1 automobiles throughout Todt’s tenure.
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For the primary time, Todt has replied to the feedback, which he claims are false.
“Once I left, there will need to have been greater than €250 million in reserves,” Todt instructed L’Equipe in reference to Ben Sulayem’s remark.
“Once I arrived in 2009, there have been barely €40m, though the FIA had simply ceded the business rights to F1 for 100 years just a few years earlier.
“I do not name it a deficit. Once I left, the funds had been multiplied by virtually three, with many new competitions and sources of revenue, corresponding to Method E, the World Endurance Championship or the Rally Raid Championship.”
Todt additionally clarified what the patent dispute was.
“It’s true that we left one dispute unfinished once I left, the Halo trial. Nevertheless it wasn’t swept below the rug. It was effectively documented and monitored by our providers; we offered it to the senate and the world council earlier than I left, and the present president attended this presentation.
“This was a lawsuit introduced in Texas by an engineer who owned a patent that was solely legitimate in the USA and for a short while. So once I left, there was nothing secret. And just one ongoing case, that one.
“However I wasn’t stunned, I knew who my successor was. I do know the character.”
Ben Sulayem’s FIA induced a wave of headlines this month when it launched after which shortly dropped an investigation into an alleged battle of curiosity between F1 Academy boss Susie Wolff and her husband Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.