Todt addresses Ferrari investigation criticism

FIA president, Jean Todt, has said his conscience is clear over the way the sporting body handled the investigation into Ferrari’s 2019 power unit.

The legality of the Ferrari engine came under some intense scrutiny in the latter stages of the 2019 campaign and suspicions continued to be raised when the release of new Technical Directives appeared to correlate with a drop in performance from the Scuderia.

The saga is set to rumble on when Formula 1 returns as some teams are still expressing dissatisfaction in the outcome of the FIA reaching a ‘private agreement’ with Ferrari over their power unit going forward.

But while there are still calls for transparency, Todt is unmoved by the crictism and shrugged off the accusation that the FIA were light-handed with Ferrari due to Todt’s former ties with the team and due to the fact that his son, Nicolas, currently manages Charles Leclerc.

“There is always inevitable chatter, today they say new things,” Todt told Corriere dello Sport.

“It works like this. [The chatter] it lasts a week and then they move on to something else. The truth is that when I accepted this assignment I knew I had to take the positive and negative sides.

“My conscience is clear, for me it is only important to be transparent with the members of the FIA and the ethics involved. The rest is just part of my role, including the unpleasant rumours.

“[The Ferrari investigation] was managed with professionalism and transparency following the rules.

“And then on many things I have to make decisions on the basis of what is suggested to me by those who contribute to giving me the information. I don’t act completely on my own.”

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