FEBRUARY 24, 2006

Todt hits 60

Ferrari boss Jean Todt will be 60 tomorrow but while some at his age are thinking of retirement, there are no signs that the Frenchman will be giving up his role at Maranello - even if he has yet to renew his contract, which runs out at the end of the year. Todt has been involved in top level motorsport since 1969 when he began his international career as a rally co-driver. In his early years he co-drove a number of top stars, including Toyota F1 team boss Ove Andersson and current Citroen Sport boss Guy Frequelin. After Talbot won the World Rally Manufacturers' title in 1981 Todt retired and was given the task of setting up Peugeot Talbot Sport to design and develop the 205 Turbo 16 for the World Rally Championship. This was the start of a successful career as a team manager which resulted in World Rally Championship success in 1985 and 1986, four Paris-Dakar victories and then a World Sportscar title and two Le Mans 24 Hours victories for Peugeot.

In 1993 Todt pushed hard for Peugeot to enter F1 but was turned down and so he left the company in July 1993 to move to Ferrari.