It was the summer time of 1996
“Once I hear speak about eliminating Todt, it makes me chuckle. Solely somebody who doesn’t know suppose may give you 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 at the moment, cyclical tales. Ten days later, Jean Todt straight 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 think about myself a supervisor. My need is to remain at Ferrari, but when Ferrari needs to do away with me, it may well achieve this at any second.”
And the journalists weren’t form. In these very days, Carlo Marincovich wrote in La Repubblica: “The person is actually disagreeable to many, he’s not charming, not sycophantic, actually he’s all the time distrustful of everybody. In line with many, Maranello below his management has change into 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 courtroom able to convey 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 apart from his temper and that of his enemies, placing Todt on trial or exhibiting him the door can 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 imagine Todt has carried out a great job, regardless that there’s nonetheless progress to be made. Todt can be a number one determine in our staff for a very long time to return.”
In hindsight, in December 2023, Jean Todt recalled to La Stampa: “In ’96 there was a whole lot 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 challenge. That’s why he stepped in and mentioned: ‘If Todt goes, I am going too.’ He undoubtedly 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—up to now with no 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 concentrate on this season, to extract the utmost potential from our automotive and our technicians. We’ll determine later when the time is correct to begin engaged on subsequent yr’s automotive.” It was 2016, and he was sporting Renault’s yellow uniform.
And once more: “I believe in the intervening time we’re fairly quick on race tempo, however in qualifying we’re an entire catastrophe! Nonetheless, we have to keep calm, not react impulsively, and attempt to perceive what’s not working. We have now to be real looking—we’ll have this handicap till we handle to get essentially the most out of our package deal 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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