Todt appointed as new FIA leader

23rd October 2009

It’s official, ex-Ferrari team boss Jean Todt is the FIA’s new president. Winning the Paris election by a comfortable margin, Todt received 135 votes compared to rival Ari Vatanen’s 49.

The result means Max Mosely’s controversial 16-year reign will come to end after the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Todt has been odds-on favourite to succeed as FIA president since Mosley confirmed earlier in the year that he would not run again. This was part of an agreement to avoid the breakaway championship that threatened back in July.

But the run-up to the election has been anything but smooth. Todt's key rival Ari Vatanen has expressed his anger on numerous occasions about the whole procedure, even threatening legal action at one stage after both Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone voiced their support for Todt. Michael Schumacher also gave full backing to his former boss at Ferrari.

Now in power Todt aims to continue improving and progressing Formula One forward and he has also made it clear that he stands for "consensus not conflict".

In other motorsport news, McLaren has announced Jenson Button could be in the running to pair up with Lewis Hamilton for next season's World Championship. Depite nothing being confirmed yet, team boss Martin Whitmarsh has commented that "we've spoken to a number of drivers,". If the deal does go ahead the British duo who also happen to be back-to-back world champions would form the dream partnership.

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