Are Liberty's Maffei and the FIA's Todt on a collision course?

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Liberty Media's CEO Greg Maffei  appears to have a mind of his own when it comes to F1, ignoring the principles FIA president  Jean Todt wishes to instill.

It's early days and the two men may simply require a bit of time together to meet halfway, but  as Todt  rejects the idea of F1 returning to screaming atmospheric engines, believing it would not be "accepted by society", Maffei  isn't ruling out the possibility.

"Yes, there are some things to do around the engines, Liberty chief executive Maffei said at a Deutsche Bank Media & Telecom conference.

"There are some things to do around the DRS system, there are a few things to do to try to balance the amount of money the teams get."

As the sport moves ahead with its ideas for the future, spearheaded by F1's new sporting managing director Ross Brawn, it will be interesting to see how it deals with the FIA's mandate of keeping F1 technology road relevant.

Maffei also revealed at the conference F1's intention of reviving the popular success of certain European Grand Prix events which have been dropped from the calendar.

"There are always races that come and go," said Maffei, "but it's more negative when it's a traditional European race which is in the heart of the fans.

"We have already started a process to bring some of these circuits back.

And he said some race weekends must be made more exciting overall.

"We will take as reference the best Grands Prix, such as Mexico, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, and bring what happens there to the traditional tracks," said Maffei.

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