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Listen to FIA president Jean Todt speak about the state of Formula 1, as a select group of us were permitted to do during a special press briefing in Paris last week, and one begins to wonder about the perfect circle of inertia that sometimes surrounds the sport he governs.
The F1 teams (well a certain proportion of them in any case) agree rules and commercial contracts, then complain the regulator and the commercial rights holder are ruining the category and not permitting them to function properly; the commercial rights holder blames the teams for being too greedy and having too much power, and criticises the direction of the category as defined by the regulations, but pockets the vast proportion of F1's revenues; while the FIA seems an impotent middle man - unable or unwilling to bash heads together and take control of the sport it regulates and once owned.
What role should the FIA take in shaping Formula 1, and what leadership has current president Jean Todt (in power since 2009) shown in trying to ensure the governing body's flagship motor racing product remains at the forefront of worldwide sporting excellence?
