Max Mosley has reiterated his belief that Jean Todt should succeed him as the head of motorsport's governing body, the FIA, as well as rubbishing rival Ari Vatanen's credentials for the job.
"Jean will do a much better job than me in many ways," said Mosley, who has publicly endorsed Todt's bid to become president. "And in some ways he will upset the F1 teams less because he probably won't come up with the next big idea.
"He will make sure it all runs like clockwork and is completely fair, honest, open and transparent - and that is what you need."
Todt's candidacy has drawn criticism from some quarters because of his recent employment at Ferrari and his willingness to use team orders, both to settle races at Ferrari and to decide the result of teh Paris-Dakar Rally when he worked for Peugeot.
"All of those things Jean did were within the rules, as they were at the time, and were in the best interests of his team," said Mosley.
"The thing about Jean is that when he was Peugeot he was 100 per cent Peugeot. When he was Ferrari he was 100 per cent Ferrari. And when he is FIA he will be 100 per cent FIA.
"There will be no old ties or loyalties to Ferrari, or Peugeot or Citroen. He will be totally down the line. And that is the good thing about him. He is absolutely open, absolutely honest. Sometimes he upsets people because he says it as he sees it. He is not a politician in telling people what they want to hear - and that is what we need."
When asked for comments about Todt's rival Vatanen, Mosley said: "Ari keeps complaining, and has done it several times, that I should be neutral and not favouring Jean.
"But he has forgotten that at the end of June, when I announced that I was standing down, he called me up and said, 'can I come and see you?' So I invited him to lunch.
"He came to lunch on 3 July and said he was going to stand, and asked me if I would support him. I said I couldn't support him as I promised to support Jean.
"I said, 'I will be very honest. I think Jean is a much better candidate. You have no experience, you have never run anything, you've not been in charge of even the smallest organisation, you have no concept of what it is like. You didn't even run your own rally car, you had a co-driver to do that.'"
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Re: Mosley rubbishes Vatanen
Once upon a time Max Mosley was a breath of fresh air in the FIA . Now he's just a useless old fart.
Re: Mosley rubbishes Vatanen
The dilema F1 has is that to allow more overtaking you must slow down the cars. Do that and lesser formulas can end up more advanced and faster than F1 which markets its self as, for want of a better expression, the mostest.
Re: Mosley rubbishes Vatanen
The FIA doesn't want overtakings. It keeps the pit stops and penalizes the driver for nothing. A basic rule : a race is won on the track (it's the past for those incompetents).
For Christmas :
No pit stops, hard tyres
Less downforce
No carbon brakes
No radio
And no more Piquet (Sr, Jr et al)
I do not understand how pilots make to approach the limits with constant dismaying radio commentaries (not to mention the instructions). Finally, there are the pit stops to avoid the instructions (poor Rubens).