Jean Todt is being lined up to replace
Max Mosley when the current President of the
FIA either steps, or is forced, down that is the overwhelming view in the
Formula 1 paddock as the latter's D-Day is now less than five weeks away.
A vote of confidence in the FIA Senate in Paris on 3 June will determine whether Mosley must resign over the recent sex scandal, or else be allowed to remain in his role until the expiry of his fourth term in October, 2009 something he has repeatedly insisted he firmly intends to do.
When he does relinquish his grip on the most powerful position within the sport, former
Ferrari team chief Todt one of the few high-profile figures within
F1 to publicly back Mosley is widely believed to be the man being groomed to take over. Both the
BBC and
The Times have reported that the Frenchman is a lock' to assume the role.
That would also explain Williams' unwillingness to sign a statement calling for Mosley's resignation in Barcelona last weekend. All of the eleven teams in the top flight met in the
Toyota motorhome in the Circuit de Catalunya's paddock at the behest of F1 supremo
Bernie Ecclestone, it is believed in an effort to compose a joint statement demanding the embattled 68-year-old step down.
Whilst
Red Bull's refusal to put its name to the agreement was perhaps no great surprise with owner Dietrich Mateschitz being a close friend of Mosley's the similar resistance of
Williams, said to have infuriated Ecclestone, is a little harder to fathom. It has been suggested, however, that neither Sir Frank Williams nor Patrick Head would sign the statement as both are sternly opposed to Todt becoming the Englishman's successor.
