Todt not surprised by Ben Sulayem allegations: 'Know his character'

With Jean Todt in charge of the FIA, there a calm atmosphere - except for the controversial end of the 2021 season. The following two years with his successor Mohammed Ben Sulayem were full of incidents. Consider, for instance, the soon-to-be truncated investigation into the integrity of Toto and Susie Wolff.

Earlier, Ben Sulayem raised eyebrows at Todt, commenting on a financial deficit left by the Frenchman after his departure. The Emirati said at the time that the FIA's deficit was around $20 million. Todt never responded to this claim before but is now revisiting it during an interview with l'Equipe.

Todt refutes criticism of Ben Sulayem

According to Todt, a misrepresentation was made by his successor. During the financial year in question, Todt had to pull out all the stops to prevent the FIA and F1 from going under during the coronavirus crisis. "When I left, there must have been more than 250 million Euros in reserves," said the former president.

"When I arrived in 2009, there were barely 40m [Euro], although the FIA had just ceded the commercial rights to F1 for a hundred years a few years earlier. I don't call that a deficit. When I left, the budget had almost tripled, with many new competitions and sources of income, such as Formula E, the World Endurance Championship or the Rally Raid Championship."

Todt agrees that there were financial uncertainties at the time of his departure. For instance, a lawsuit was pending over the Halo patent. But according to the Frenchman, all information on that was well documented and "nothing had been swept under the carpet". Criticism of Todt's performance came from Ben Sulayem after all? The Frenchman seemed to shrug: "But I wasn't surprised, I knew who my successor was. I know the character."