The question posed earlier has not really been answered. If Todt is such an honest man who wants to bring change the FIA, why did he accept the illicit electioneering assistance he got? Really, Todt should have told Mosley and the rest to back off, as he was capable of winning the election fair and square by himself.
First, we have to look at precisely how illicit this electioneering assistance was. It's bad form for Mosley to back Todt, but it's not like he was stuffing ballot boxes or anything. Vatanen was asking for external observers, but how much of this was a valid concern, and how much was posturing for the media. There have been no credible claims of miscounted votes, more votes than members, etc. Sure, there have been people working for the candidates, lieutenants if you will, but that's normal in any political election of this type. Emotional descriptions of these people, e.g. as Todt's "henchmen",
Second, we need to consider exactly how someone gets to be president of a highly political organisation such as the FIA. They don't get to win by being Tinkerbelle. We now have someone with an impressive pedigree in F1 at the head of the FIA. If Todt had attempted to go it alone, would we have had Todt as president, Vatanen as president, or would the FIA incumbents have gone for one of their own, a Donnelly or Nazir Hoosein, as president. Then imagine how much £*%" we'd be in.
The FIA is not going to change its spots overnight. But we now have a really credible president. And over time, the organisation can be reformed from the inside. For example, the conciliatory noises between the FIA and FOTA might indicate the next step. And Todt dividing power among more people, as also suggested, might be another step. But it's unrealistic to expect things to change immediately, and anyone taking on the job has to realise this. And so do we.
I agree with most of the post, though I would say the assistance Todt got was still pretty unethical. I agree that there is no solid evidence of the ballot being rigged, but this was unnecessary anyway. Vatanen's campaign was undermined by several crafty means, such as using the Renault affair to drown out much of his publicity and denying him equal chances to get across his views. If this were an election in a fully developed Western democracy, the national election commission would be involved and suspicions cast on the result. So, granted, it was not a Zimbabwean style election; it was more of a Russian one.
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988,
1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998,
1999, 2007McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
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