Max Mosley has voiced his support for Jean Todt to succeed him as FIA president, insisting the Frenchman will be a model of integrity.
Departing FIA president has a favourite to be his successor
Max Mosley has voiced his support for Jean Todt to succeed him as FIA president, insisting the former Ferrari team principal will be a model of integrity.
Since announcing his candidature Todt has maintained a low public profile, but is set to attend the weekend's Singapore Grand Prix and meet with the Formula One Teams' Association.
There are concerns over the Frenchman's neutrality, however, because of incidents like the fixing of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix when he ordered Rubens Barrichello to slow down in order for his team-mate Michael Schumacher to take the chequered flag.
Commitment
Mosley has defended Todt, however: "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.
"The thing about Jean is when he was Peugeot he was 100 per cent Peugeot, and 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, 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 everybody what they want to hear. In many, many ways Jean will do a much better job than me, 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."
Controversy
Furthermore, Mosley believes Todt is better equipped than his opponent Ari Vatanen to be FIA president.
Former World Rally champion Vatanen has run his campaign on the slogan he is 'the candidate for change' after 12 years of Mosley rule, but Mosley is far from convinced.
"Ari keeps complaining, and has done it several times, that I should be neutral and not favouring Jean," Mosley added.
"But he has entirely forgotten that at the end of June, when I said I was standing down, he called me up and said, 'Can I come and see you?'
"So I invited him to lunch and he immediately said 'I'm going to stand, will you support me?'
"I said 'Ari, I can't support you because I've promised to support Jean.' I said to him 'I'll be very honest, I think Jean is a much better candidate.
"'You've no experience, you've never run anything, you've never 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, so I cannot support you."'
