DECEMBER 29, 2009

Former Ferrari engine chief joins FIA

FIA President Jean Todt has been careful in recent months to keep a low profile in Formula 1 terms, presumably to create some distance between himself and former FIA President Max Mosley.

The World Council meeting in December outlined some of the plans that he has and now it is emerging that Todt will be using the knowledge and experience of Gilles Simon, the former engine chief of Ferrari, to look into new engine technologies that can be applied to the sport to make it more environmentally friendly.

Simon is a Todt man through and through. The two worked together at Peugeot back in the 1980s and then Simon followed Todt to Ferrari in the 1990s. Now he is following him to the FIA. Todt says that motorsport must be willing to adapt to the times in which it finds itself and that may need completely new disciplines.