It was the summer time of 1996
“Once I hear speak about eliminating Todt, it makes me snort. Solely somebody who doesn’t know learn how to suppose might provide you with one thing like that. If you wish to destroy Ferrari, then sure, do away with Jean Todt. However I’m satisfied that this concept got here solely from somebody within the press. I discover all of the fuss made about what occurred fairly shocking,” thundered Michael Schumacher in July 1996, after the disastrous French Grand Prix the place his Ferrari engine went up in smoke in the course of the formation lap.
Tales of yesterday, tales of right this moment, cyclical tales. Ten days later, Jean Todt immediately addressed the criticism: “No matter occurs at Ferrari, it’s my fault. It needs to be, as a result of my place is that of the top of sporting administration. It’s my fault and it have to be my fault—I’m additionally paid for this. I contemplate myself a supervisor. My want is to remain at Ferrari, but when Ferrari needs to do away with me, it may possibly accomplish that at any second.”
And the journalists weren’t type. In these very days, Carlo Marincovich wrote in La Repubblica: “The person is actually disagreeable to many, he’s not charming, not sycophantic, the truth is he’s at all times distrustful of everybody. In accordance with many, Maranello underneath his management has turn out to be a kind of reign of terror, with individuals strolling round with their heads down and their tails between their legs. Some even painting him as a form of Ceausescu, surrounded by a court docket able to deliver him his slippers and wag their tails on the slightest snap of his fingers.”
Right here too, recurring conditions, a crossroads that by no means appears definitive: “However except for his temper and that of his enemies, placing Todt on trial or exhibiting him the door could be pointless. Worse: it will be an enormous blow to Ferrari. It might imply changing him with another person, and albeit, wanting round, the panorama is fairly empty. It might imply beginning another time, but once more, with ‘restructuring’—which in Maranello means ‘purges’, eliminations, blacklists, dismissals, punishments involving transfers to the geranium vase warehouse.”
Gianni Agnelli blamed the Italian press: “In Italy it’s at all times somebody’s fault: both Todt’s or Sacchi’s or another person’s.” A month later—in August—Luca Cordero di Montezemolo advised France Soir to clear the air: “I imagine Todt has executed a great job, though there’s nonetheless progress to be made. Todt will probably be a number one determine in our crew for a very long time to come back.”
In hindsight, in December 2023, Jean Todt recalled to La Stampa: “In ’96 there was plenty of speak about my dismissal. Michael had simply arrived and will see that my plan was stable, that the individuals who have been about to affix and with whom I used to be secretly negotiating aligned with our undertaking. That’s why he stepped in and mentioned: ‘If Todt goes, I am going too.’ He positively stopped those that have been pondering of firing me.”
Phrases we’ve already heard
It’s simple now to attract a parallel with the phrases of Italian journalists, of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Frederic Vasseur in the summertime of 2025—thus far and not using a response from Ferrari’s administration.
However tying again to those recurring phrases, to a previous that’s at all times current, right here’s a classic Fred Vasseur: “We have to deal with this season, to extract the utmost potential from our automobile and our technicians. We’ll resolve later when the time is correct to start out engaged on subsequent 12 months’s automobile.” It was 2016, and he was carrying Renault’s yellow uniform.
And once more: “I feel for the time being we’re fairly quick on race tempo, however in qualifying we’re a whole catastrophe! Nonetheless, we have to keep calm, not react impulsively, and attempt to perceive what’s not working. We’ve to be reasonable—we’ll have this handicap till we handle to get essentially the most out of our bundle over a single lap.” Once more, Frederic Vasseur, 2020, Sauber Alfa Romeo.
The potential, the execution, the weak qualifying efficiency: it truly is at all times the identical story…
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