Todt Tells Vatanen to Show More Respect

After the FIA has issued the necessary clarification regarding Ari Vatanen's accusations directed at Jean Todt – that he's using FIA money to sustain his campaign, plus some other stuff related to his worldwide traveling on behalf of the ruling body – the Frenchman decided to finally answer his Finnish rival himself.

The former Ferrari boss, who announced his candidature for the FIA presidency earlier this month, asked his opponent for that position to be more respectful towards his own person. The two are currently the only high-ranked officials to run for Max Mosley's seat this October, and the 69-year old Brit announced he will not run for another mandate.

“All candidates should conduct their campaigns with dignity. In future I hope everyone can stick to the issues and respect the integrity of this democratic process,” a spokesman for Todt told the media on Wednesday.

Vatanen did not only attracted the rage of the FIA – and obviously Jean Todt's – but also some hostility from the Frenchman's former team, Ferrari. The 57-year old Finn had argued earlier this week that Todt's former employer will not back the Frenchman in his FIA bid, as they don't share too friendly feelings towards him.

“At Ferrari they don't want Todt to be president, because they think the sport would lose credibility,” had said Vatanen. His comments were immediately responded by the Maranello Scuderia, who argued they “have never expressed any preference for any candidate as the teams are not involved directly in the election of the president of FIA,” as confirmed by Ferrari's spokesman Luca Colajanni for inthenews.co.uk.