Whale we’re just days away from electing a new FIA President to replace the outgoing “Sir maXXum,” a.k.a. Max Mosley this Friday, with the two candidates being Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen.
And the mudslinging has been pretty ferocious, as the deck chairs seem decidedly stacked against the rebellious Finnish upstart Vatanen, who most ironically drove for and won three Paris Dakar Rally’s for then Peugeot Sporting Boss Jean Todt…
Yet, it appears that the FIA under Mosley’s guidance has done nearly everything in it’s powers to quash Vatanen’s election bid; from todt’s flying on private jets, FIA members campaigning on their alleged “FREE” time, Ecclestone barring the Finn access to the F1 Grid, Mosley doing interviews in Todt’s defense, Mosley having Vatanen physically removed from his office and now reports that Todt backers have tried extorting votes in favour of Bribery!
Todt Official Made ‘Threats’ For Vote
Not to mention Michael Schumacher’s campaigning and letter writing in behalf of ex-Ferrari Boss Jean Todt; while Vatanen himself has filed a brief in the Paris courts asking for transparency in the upcoming election… Which naturally the FIA lambasted, even going so far as to say that all of the information upon the voting process was available upon their official website, yet, interestingly SPEED’s Bob Varsha, a Lawyer himself noted on Sunday night’s Wind Tunnel, that although there was indeed a section on voting on the website, it only told you how to go about getting your vote and NOT how the election process itself would be completed…
So you’ve gotta wonder why the full court press against Vatanen and which is really better? Status Quo or new leadership, as only time will tell… Hopefully shortly and without any lawsuits being filed instead, eh?
UPDATE:
Ari Vatanen has now agreed to withdraw his legal action against the FIA and will await the outcome of voting this Friday to see who’ll be elected the new FIA President, click here.
