F1 actually does need a dictator

It was arguably as withering a remark as Jean Todt has delivered during his time in office as FIA president.

The question that led to Todt's stinging barb was about a letter from the grand prix drivers, the headline from which was describing Formula 1's governance as "obsolete and ill-structured".

Although signed only by Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alex Wurz and past world champions Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button, the remaining 20 drivers - whether members of the GPDA or not - all agreed to the letter's sentiments.

It was a rare show of collective strength from the drivers, raising their voices as one, to express gnawing frustration at not only how F1 is run, but also its over-complicated, over-subscribed decision-making processes.

In a Bahrain media briefing that lasted over an hour, Todt delivered his cutting response.

"With all due respect to the drivers, if you ask them how governance works, it would be doubtful they know. Maybe I'm wrong," he said.

"I can sympathise with the drivers, with them saying, 'We love our sport, help us to ensure we have a healthy and transparent sport'.

"But I will take this message, that I support, rather than them saying you should address the governance, because unless they have very specific advisors then they don't know what is the governance."

F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone, typically lacking any degree of subtlety, suggested the drivers - some of them at least - were nothing more than "windbags" doing the bidding of their team principals.

In a separate briefing with a select group of media, Ecclestone left nothing on the table when he said: "What sort of interest do they have, the drivers, other than taking money out of the sport?

"I've never seen one of them put one dollar in. You go to dinner with them and they don't even pay the bill.

"They shouldn't even be allowed to talk. They should get in the car and drive it."

In fairness, Todt may well have a point if one well-known driver - who shall remain nameless in this instance - is anything to go by, when unable to name the driver member on the World Motor Sport Council.

In case you are wondering, it is nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen.

Some of the drivers must at least have some semblance of an idea because they are right in declaring F1's governance to be ill-structured.

The one-time dictatorship that was Ecclestone and former FIA president Max Mosley has given way to a democracy in which too many voices are often intent on playing political games, serving only their own interests rather than the good of F1 as a whole.

For starters, the Strategy Group - Ecclestone, Todt, the 'big five' teams in Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Red Bull, and the sixth-placed team from any given season - is intensely disliked.

Even Ecclestone, in more of his sardonic put-downs, has often claimed it does nothing more than decide the date of the next meeting, such is its perceived failure to actually implement any meaningful strategy for F1's future.

Those teams on the outside are infuriated at the fact they have no say, no vote when it comes to formulating regulations and policy.

The counter-argument from those on the inside is their input would only cloud matters. Why have 11 different opinions when six is already 'enough'?

So why not do away with it altogether?

Well, there is one particular reason why. Or rather 40 million, anyway, if you put a dollar sign in front of that figure.

As Ecclestone reveals, it is in the FIA's best financial interests for the Strategy Group - that a few years ago replaced the Sporting and Technical Working Groups - to be in place.

"I don't think they [the FIA] would [get rid of the Strategy Group] because we pay them $40million a year to have that group," said Ecclestone.

It is a staggering sum of money, and one wonders whether Todt would give up such an amount for the FIA to become the sole regulator and legislator of F1, as he claims.

"The FIA should have complete control," said the 70-year-old Frenchman.

That assertion was swiftly followed by the caveat that the current bilateral agreements in place with the teams through to 2020 mean the FIA's hands are tied.

"We cannot get out of this governance," bemoaned Todt, suggesting F1 will have to wait another four years until a new Concorde Agreement can be put in place.

As president of the FIA, Todt is almost powerless because of the democracy that currently exists, and the power the teams wield, when it comes to voting things through.

Todt can entrench himself in a position, and if fortunate enough to forge an alliance with Ecclestone on a particular subject - as we have seen with the mess surrounding qualifying - can force an impasse with the teams.

But unlike the FIA's peers when it comes to other sporting bodies, there is no imposition of will, no unilateral formulation of the rules, no saying to the teams, 'these are the regulations, accept them or leave'.

Instead, we have the Strategy Group that formulates and votes on plans for that abstruse body the F1 Commission to ultimately say yay or nay.

The F1 Commission comprises a staggering 26 members, with Ecclestone as its leader, and also includes Todt, representatives of the 11 teams, as well as those from various sponsors, such as Rolex, promoters and stakeholders.

Can you imagine a high-ranking official from Coca-Cola sitting on FIFA's executive committee and helping to determine policy simply because it is one of the sponsors of the World Cup every four years?

That is the power the man from Rolex has with Formula 1. Is that not madness?

If there was a particular branch ripe for a swathe to be cut through it, for its membership to be slashed by at least half to guarantee greater efficiency, it is the F1 Commission. And Ecclestone agrees.

"It could be - should be," said Ecclestone when it was suggested to him the body needed to be streamlined.

"Years ago, though, the idea was that we thought all the people should have some sort of a say in this."

Now, though, like many aspects of F1 that have failed to adapt to, or acknowledge, the fast-paced, social media-driven world in which we live, so the 'old-boys' Commission needs to be dragged up to date.

But again, wanting change and trying to implement it, is incredibly difficult, as Todt has discovered over the years to his frustration.

Todt claims he is not a dictator, nor does he want to become one, but there are times when an unsatisfactory situation requires being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and taken control of.

This is one of those times for Todt, and it could be achieved, too, if there was unanimous agreement on all sides for him to do so.

Hell would likely freeze over first, though, before Todt and the FIA were given the keys to the kingdom again.

Sadly for F1, it means we've another four years at least of political bickering and manoeuvring before a change of governance could possibly be made.