Todt, who is yet to announce himself that he intends to stand for a second
term, declined to comment on the spectre of Ward although he is said to be
sanguine about the possible threat to his leadership.
The Frenchman could find, though, that a groundswell of support builds for an
alternative. Despite being virtually anonymous, at least on the Formula
One front, for most of his reign, Todt has managed to be hugely
divisive on certain key issues, such as rising organisational costs and his
handling of the 2011 and 2012 Bahrain grands prix.
On top of that, and perhaps most importantly, Todt has not yet managed to
agree terms with Ecclestone over a new commercial agreement between the
sport and the FIA, which will determine how much money the governing body
has to hand down to the clubs in the coming years.
Todt will be in Hungary this weekend ahead of Sunday’s grand prix and is due
to meet with several key European members, which may not be entirely
coincidental as far as the leaking of the Ward story is concerned.
The whole situation is complicated by the fact that Ecclestone is facing the
possibilty of a trial in Germany over bribery charges relating to the last
sale of Formula One to its current owner CVC Capital.
Those wishing to stand for office must put in their election lists between
October 23 and November 13.
Meanwhile, Formula One’s owners were facing accusations of greed yesteday
after a story in The Independent detailing how little the sport pays
in corporation tax thanks to a complex arrangement with HM Revenue and
Customs (HMRC).
Formula One made a net contribution of £945,663 in corporation tax in 2011 on
revenues of £980m – even though the majority of its commercial operations
are based in the UK.
Details of the arrangement with HMRC, which came from the prospectus for the
stalled flotation of Formula One on the Singapore stock exchange, were
published in Telegraph Sport last year.
The author of both stories has close ties to Ecclestone, making the purpose of
yesterday’s story in The Independent unclear. Neither Formula One’s
chief executive nor CVC are likely to have enjoyed having the sport compared
to US companies Starbucks, Google and Amazon, all of whom made headlines
earlier this year when it was revealed how little tax they paid despite
having huge operations in the UK.
It may be that the intention was to advertise to potential investors the fact
that Formula One profits from such a good deal with HMRC.