Even amid the corruption scandal, FIA president Jean Todt continues to support embattled F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
Earlier, a co-owner of the sport, the Norwegian central bank Norges’ Yngve Slyngstad called on the 83-year-old Briton to be “suspended” while he faces criminal charges in Germany.<\/p>\n
But Todt told the Telegraph: “At the moment, he (Ecclestone) is not guilty.<\/p>\n
“Has he done a good job?\u00a0 He has done an outstanding job.\u00a0 That’s the only thing I concentrate on,” the Frenchman added.<\/p>\n
Todt also told Germany’s Welt newspaper this week: “Without him, formula one would not have become the global business that it is today.<\/p>\n
“Some day in the future formula one will have to do without him, but that’s the case for all of us.<\/p>\n
“Currently, the relationship between the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone is not affected,” he insisted.<\/p>\n
And Todt said there is currently no sign that F1’s owners, CVC, have a different view.<\/p>\n
“When CVC … want to move him on, they will let me know as president of the FIA,” he told the Daily Mail.\u00a0 “There has been no talk of that with them.”<\/p>\n
Where Todt and Ecclestone do differ is on the sport’s all-new and revolutionary look for 2014, with the Briton recently slamming the “farce” of unreliable cars and disliking the milder V6 engine tones.<\/p>\n
Todt, however, is unapologetic.<\/p>\n
“If we had not gone this way,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “some manufacturers might have gone away.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure if Mercedes would have stayed or whether Honda would have come back,” added Todt.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as one of the injured Michael Schumacher’s closest friends who visits the great German in hospital almost daily, Todt insisted he still has high hopes of a recovery.<\/p>\n
“I can tell you that we still have big hopes for Michael,” he said.<\/p>\n
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