Jean Todt responds to Ferrari gate: "I have a clear conscience"

On the last day of the winter test in Barcelona earlier this year, a press release from the FIA came out, in which they said they had made a deal behind closed doors with Ferrari. This following suspicions of foul play with the engine in 2019. Meanwhile, the FIA and Ferrari have explained several times why they have flown it this way, yet it continues to recur in the media.

Clean conscience

Jean Todt, president of the FIA, spoke with the Italian Corriere Della Sera, who asked him about all the rumors and accusations. As an old team boss of Ferrari, Todt has a link with the team, but his son is also linked to Ferrari. After all, Nicolas Todt is the manager of Charles Leclerc, so through the connections there tend to be a conflict of interest for the outside world.

Yet Todt is very clear about the matter. "These are inevitable rumours. Every day there are new ones. That's how it works, it takes a week and then we move on," says Todt on the rumors that he wouldn't have acted transparently enough. In his view, the case was closed according to the rules, with no further secondary interests.

"The truth is that when I accepted this role [FIA president], I knew I had to take all the positive and negative sides. My conscience is clear. For me, the most important thing is to be transparent with FIA members and ethics." Yet many people question precisely this transparency, because the deal with Ferrari is secret, which is of course at odds with the term 'transparent'.

"The case was handled professionally and transparently according to the rules", says Todt again, but also that he does not do it alone. "I have to make decisions about many things based on what is proposed to me by those who help me give the information. I don't act alone", said Jean Todt about Ferrari-gate.