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Todt wants more positivity surrounding F1

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FIA president Jean Todt believes there should be more positivity surrounding F1 and wants concerns to be dealt with privately.

Bernie Ecclestone has often criticised a number of aspects of F1 despite the commercial rights holder needing to promote the sport, strongly opposing the sound of the current power units. While Ecclestone had been a prominent supporter of plans to introduce an independent engine for customer teams, it was agreed last week that the current power units would remain until 2020 in exchange for manufacturers lowering the cost.

Asked how he feels the FIA can ensure Formula One’s image is not damaged by negativity surrounding the sport, Todt replied: “It’s a very good question you ask me, because I ask myself the same question and I did not find the answer.

“I made some [comparisons] and say it’s like George Lucas making a new movie and saying: ’My new movie is shit’. I never saw that in my life. I’ve been inside strong decisions and all that with people who have quite a lot of credit and they did something which was not at the level of their expectations but then they deal with that internally.

“In Formula One - and I must say it is a bit specific to the Formula One world - I mean sometimes it is self-destruction. I have my way. In a way I have a lot of downsides but you have never seen me criticising somebody specifically or the whole thing. Can we do better? Clearly we can do better. Should we do better? Yes. But we should deal with that internally.

“Even the media because at the end of the day it is in the interest of the media - in order to get readers and to get interest from people - to speak positively about it.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.