It was the summer time of 1996
“Once I hear discuss eliminating Todt, it makes me snicker. Solely somebody who doesn’t know tips on how to suppose may 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 stunning,” thundered Michael Schumacher in July 1996, after the disastrous French Grand Prix the place his Ferrari engine went up in smoke through the formation lap.
Tales of yesterday, tales of as we speak, cyclical tales. Ten days later, Jean Todt immediately addressed the criticism: “No matter occurs at Ferrari, it’s my fault. It must be, as a result of my place is that of the pinnacle of sporting administration. It’s my fault and it should be my fault—I’m additionally paid for this. I contemplate myself a supervisor. My need is to remain at Ferrari, but when Ferrari desires to do away with me, it might probably 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, in reality he’s all the time distrustful of everybody. In response to many, Maranello below his management has develop into a kind of reign of terror, with folks strolling round with their heads down and their tails between their legs. Some even painting him as a type of Ceausescu, surrounded by a courtroom 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 might be an enormous blow to Ferrari. It could imply changing him with another person, and albeit, wanting round, the panorama is fairly empty. It could imply beginning yet again, 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 all the time 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 consider Todt has completed an excellent job, although there’s nonetheless progress to be made. Todt might 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 quite a lot of discuss my dismissal. Michael had simply arrived and will see that my plan was strong, that the individuals who had been about to affix and with whom I used to be secretly negotiating aligned with our challenge. That’s why he stepped in and mentioned: ‘If Todt goes, I am going too.’ He positively stopped those that had been considering of firing me.”
Phrases we’ve already heard
It’s straightforward 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 all the time 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 determine later when the time is true to start out engaged on subsequent yr’s automobile.” It was 2016, and he was sporting Renault’s yellow uniform.
And once more: “I believe in the meanwhile 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 now have to be lifelike—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 all the time the identical story…
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