French motor sport executive Jean Todt, current president of governing body the FIA, thinks that common technical ground between Formula 1 and sportscar racing would help sustain manufacturer involvement in both series. The former Scuderia Ferrari Chief Executive Officer paid the World Endurance Championship a visit last weekend for its first round which took place at Spa and saw Toyota and Fernando Alonso take top spoils.
The president of motorsport’s governing body would love to see a form of unification take place between the top two categories of racing, insisting the idea would promote manufacturer presence across both series: “It would be ideal to achieve some unification, but in practice this is not easy. Ideas appear but it’s more difficult when you start to get into the details. At the moment in Formula 1 we are discussing the number of carmakers in the championship. Right now we have four but we want to guarantee that they stay. And it’s difficult to do that if they only work with one team or two.” – Jean Todt said, as reported by the British media.
Common technical interests linking Formula 1 and endurance racing would likely sustain current manufacturer involvement and promote additional participation according to the Frenchman. Practically however, the concept would be a complicated one to put in place, he admits: “If it was possible to supply their products to other racing series, the project becomes more feasible. But immediately a number of problems appear. In principle we are happy to think about this topic, but in reality everything is not so simple.” – the president of governing body the FIA concluded.
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