Autosprint has brought up Luca di Montezemolo as one of the candidates for the role of FIA president. The weekly edited by Andrea Cordovani sees the former Ferrari president as the ideal replacement for Jean Todt, when the Frenchman’s mandate will expire next year.
The investigation of Pino Allievi has put together a series of clues that would lead Luca di Montezemolo to be a candidate for the top role of the International Federation, suggesting that pushing for this scenario would be no one less than Bernie Ecclestone, the ex-F1 boss.
It must be said that Jean Todt, the current FIA president, has not yet given an insight to who could become his successor and give continuity to a project that the motor sport executive has been carrying out over the years, in particular on security, given that at the end mandate he can no longer be re-elected.
It is clear, if Autosprint’s indications are correct, that Luca di Montezemolo would not be Jean Todt’s personal choice, but it would be an alternative candidature to that of Jean who currently sees only Mohammed Ben Sulayem, an Emirati former rally driver, one of the Arab world’s leading motor sport figures and an influential official within the sport’s world governing body.
The presidency of the FIA is decided with a vote that is extended to all the ASNs that are part of it and even if many countries have no consolidated tradition in the world of motorsport, they can have an important part in the choice, since there is no weighting on the value that each national Federation has in the automotive and racing landscape.
As we wait for Jean Todt to choose his candidate, it is interesting to note the name of Luca di Montezemolo, the head of the current president in the Michael Schumacher era, when Scuderia Ferrari won everything there was to win. We will find out in the following days if the former FIAT president who has excellent industrial and political relations in the world, can become a real candidate at the head of the FIA with the possibility of broadening his status.
Autosprint started from a series of clues, but it will be necessary to see if the former Ferrari boss will intend to support the candidacy after his name has now come out into the open. Less credible is the possibility that instead of Montezemolo, Flavio Briatore may be called in, a more controversial character for such a federal role.
The former Ferrari boss may have all the right characteristics for the FIA role, but his name is not the only one which has been discussed recetly. Others, such as Alejandro Agag, creator of Formula E, David Richards and Stefano Domenicali (the current boss of Lamborghini), could also follow on Jean Todt’s footsteps.
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