How F1 is waking up to its existential threat

For all the cold, hard decisions that Jean Todt sometimes had to make on the pitwall as he helped guide Ferrari to its golden years of success with Michael Schumacher, one of his traits when you get to know him up close is that, on a human-to-human level, he cares. He cares a lot.

As the coronavirus pandemic rips its way through the world, it is no surprise to hear how moved Todt has been, not just by the impact it is having now, but also where it leaves humanity in the future.

It's not for the current FIA president to try to use the moment to score political points; to use it as a land grab for power; or to sense opportunity for career enhancing moments. Now is a time for compassion, understanding, and action that is needed to save F1 and even motor racing itself.

The coronavirus outbreak has hit close to home for Todt - with the girlfriend of his son Nicolas having been struck down - but his biggest concern is not personal. Speaking from his home in France earlier this week, Todt was emphatic that the current crisis was not a time to think of individuals.

As we discussed British PM Boris Johnson being in intensive care, Todt said: "Yes, but he's one of the thousands of people now. Probably more visible than the others, but you have hundreds of people who are dying because of that, who are affected because of that, and I mean life is just in neutral.

"The good thing is that it allows us to have some thoughts, some more philosophical thoughts, about the weakness of the world. How the human being is an unknown part. Because at a time when people are talking about the nuclear bomb, about an autonomous car, connected car, going to Mars or to the moon, we are all ordered [to stay at home]. The planet is lost because of a virus.

"So it's a matter of thinking. In a way that is why, and I don't want to be presumptuous, but it was about 14 years ago, with Gerard Saillant, we thought of creating a brain and spinal cord institute just because we feel that the human being is so unknown that we need to do something to improve the understanding of the human being. We have 8 billion prototypes on earth!"

Todt is a man of action, who much prefers to get on with things in the background rather than inflate his self-worth with public platitudes. He only likes the spotlight when he sees it as a means for helping projects he is involved in.

Todt's push for consensus and an agreed result based on cold hard facts, rather than rushing in to something for pure gut feeling, can be an asset for F1

Publicity is never a vanity project for him. It's a tactic that has sometimes delivered the image of him being hesitant to take decisions, or being fearful to adopt a confrontational approach as a means of getting what he wants.

He definitely prefers consensus to a fight. But now, as the risk of F1 teams (both manufacturers and independents) and the sport collapsing emerges, Todt is showing off one the traits that has been an ever present too: that when things need doing for the greater good, he does everything he can to achieve the best outcome.

An alarming report from the UN's Sustainable Development Goal - that suggests 25 million people could be left jobless by the pandemic - has left Todt concerned. His job is to make sure F1's teams wake up to the realities of what lies ahead.

While there have been some concessions from the biggest teams - like Mercedes accepting the DAS ban stays for 2021 and Ferrari to delay the 2021 regulations - Todt wants more. An agreement to reduce F1's budget cap to $150 million does cut it.

Asked if he had seen a more pragmatic approach from teams rather than the total self-interest of the past, Todt is quick to reply. "I do, I do. Not enough, but I do."

What's needed is a complete rethink of how we go motor racing. For Todt, the days of $500 million budgets, and 1000s of people working for teams, are gone. Even halving that number for him is still not enough. He is talking of a 'New Deal' approach, like America had after the Great Depression.

"We were in an unacceptable situation, [costs were] too high," he says. "It's always a balance between doing something and seeing if it's worth doing. But it [the high cost] was putting the sport at risk, that's why the teams have understood that, including the biggest teams.

"Together with Formula 1, we have been working very closely hand in hand and positively to address the situation with the support of the teams.

"Now, what is important is to see the level of the support, and of course, we have different voices between the small, medium, and big [teams]. So we need to convince the big ones that the step that was planned was not enough, which is done.

"And the [new] step proposed is still not enough. That's why on Friday, we should make a final decision, but again we must do that with proper analysis, proper figures.

"It is important that we get a very strong input, a very strong coordination, cooperation from all the stakeholders to do something professionally and well-done."

This is where Todt's push for consensus and an agreed result based on cold hard facts, rather than rushing in to something for pure gut feeling, can be an asset for F1. He is not naive enough to think that the pandemic will pass in a few weeks and, like a light switch, the F1 circus will then suddenly get back on the road.

Todt senses that if he does his job well, then motor racing as a whole can come out of this crisis in a better and more sustainable place. Should that happen, it would potentially be a greater achievement for Todt than anything he delivered at Maranello

Todt knows the reality is different. Even if racing can take place, will there even be appetite for it from fans amid a rising death toll?

"Another problem we will have to face is the interest," he says.

"Because when all that will be over, do you still want to go to a race? Do you still want to go to a sports game? Do you still want to go to the theatre? Do you still want to go to the restaurant, to the movie?

"So we will have to learn how to start again, because at the moment we are all confined depending on where, who and how we are."

He added: "People are scared. You know, I just was talking with a neighbour and I said, 'Will you come and see me?' He said: 'You want me to put my mask on?'

"Why are we disciplined? Because there is a strong guidance from government, and we need to think, and because we are scared of what could be the consequences."

Todt senses that if he does his job well, then motor racing as a whole can come out of this crisis in a better and more sustainable place. Should that happen, considering all that is at risk now, it would potentially be a greater achievement for Todt than anything he delivered at Maranello. And it's why he knows he must step up to the plate.

"I wish the best to everybody, I hope that everybody will learn out of it," he said. "We learn that we are fragile, that we must be humble, but there are things that are much higher than what we think we are. We are blessed."

F1 must brace itself for some difficult times ahead. But out of the bad, some good will come eventually and Todt is fighting his corner to make sure that happens.

"I think it's something which is needed but it has to be properly done, it has to be well balanced," he says. "Because as I was saying earlier, if today someone will tell you let's go to the restaurant, honestly, you don't feel like going to the restaurant.

"If it would have been three months ago, you would have jumped to go to the restaurant. Your thoughts at the moment, your brain is different.

"Your worries, your concerns are different. It will take some time, it will come back, but I really hope that it will come back better. We don't have any reasons to be full of ourselves.

"But we must be very humble. Very humble."