Jean Todt has declined to give his viewpoint on the News Corp/Exor bid to get involved in F1, other than saying it was ‘strange’ that the story had come out before it was clear whether CVC was willing to sell.
Todt has confirmed that the FIA has a veto on any sale.
“I heard about and I even spoke to some people who are involved in that,” said Todt. “I have very simple comments. As you know FIA is the regulator of the sport and is not involved with commercial matters. F1 commercial rights do belong to CVC.
“So from what I know CVC has not the intention to sell. If it will be true in five years, 10 years, honestly it’s not a question for me, it’s a question to CVC. If one day CVC is deciding that they want to sell the rights they have for the commercial organisation of F1, as president of the FIA if I am still by then the president I need to speak with my people in FIA to give the agreement whether we’re happy with the people who will take over or we are not happy.”
“I feel it’s strange [for someone] to say we want to buy before we know it’s for sale. I think the first action would be for whoever is keen to take over the commercial rights to find out with CVC what is the situation.”
Pushed for his opinion, he said: “I’m sorry but there is no validity for this question. Maybe Coca-Cola want to take over. First CVC must be willing to sell. Why should I answer a question without knowing… For the time being CVC doesn’t want to sell.”
Regarding the prospect of the owner of Ferrari getting involved, he said: “Exor is the family company from the major shareholder of the Fiat Group. You have other examples in F1 where you have some organisers who are shareholders of some teams [ie Bahrain/McLaren, Abu Dhabi/Mercedes]. It’s just a kind of personal opinion the first people who should be involved are the owners of the actual commercial rights.”
Regarding criticism of the teams’ interest in the bid from Bernie Ecclestone, Todt said: “It would be completely inappropriate to react to what you heard. For me as president of the FIA we would all be stronger if we worked together instead of against each other. It’s a fact of life, you know. And it’s what I’ve been trying to do since I am head of the FIA, if we are able to have the teams, the commercial rights holder, the FIA as the regulator, working politically and hopefully with the media.”
Adam Cooper F1 