JULY 4, 2005

Ferrari nails its colours to Mosley's mast

Ferrari boss Jean Todt has told reporters that he supports FIA President Max Mosley. This is not a surprise. The views underline once again that Ferrari is completely isolated from all the other Formula 1 teams of note.

"Lots of people don't like Max Mosley that's clear," said Todt. "I like Max Mosley, so that's the first fundamental difference. I like him, I rate him, I appreciate what he does, I respect what he does. They don't like him, they don't rate what he does and they don't want him to stand again for (presidency of) the FIA. So everything that they can try to do to avoid that, they are trying to do. So we are not on safety, we are not on tyres, we are on politics. Politically I support him. Politically I feel he's a great president for the FIA, even if I don't always share his opinion, his decisions. But you know when you have this position you have to have an opinion, you have to make decisions. Sometimes it's good. You know it's exactly that: political. In countries you have 50 percent or 52 on one side and 48 and sometimes less on the other side. It is part of life. So at the moment you have seven teams, probably more than seven teams who are trying to go against him. So for me, that's why we are not talking about safety or about anything else."

The interesting thing about Todt's speech is that he felt the need to make it. The other question raised by the remarks is whether or not Todt made them without being asked to come to Mosley's aid. That is impossible to know but it is as much a part of the political games at the moment as the results themselves.