Jean Todt's new role at Ferrari

The change came about mainly because Luca di Montezemolo took on a new job representing Italian industry. After the death of Umberto Agnelli he's subsequently become President of the Fiat Group as well, so he has even less time to spare.

Todt had ambitions to break into the road car side at Peugeot years ago, so in effect he's finally achieved his ambition.

"I have a responsibility inside the Ferrari company which is covering the whole company, which is very interesting and very challenging," he says. "We have some fantastic people in the racing department, so I need to delegate a bit more to them. There are very good people in the road car department, and Ferrari is producing the best GT cars on the market.

"We have very committed people and we have very competitive programmes in front of us, and I will give some contribution. So it's not a revolution in the company. Luca di Montezemolo has been appointed President of Confindustria and President of the Fiat Group. He remains President of Ferrari. It's just a redistribution of the role."

The strange thing is that his promotion has come about just as his name is being banded about for a future role at the FIA. So is this going to be a stop-gap arrangement, before he moves on? He could certainly love to take a job that would allow him to be based in Paris. Home is where the heart is, after all.

"I have a contract at Ferrari until the end of 2006. I will remind you that I joined Ferrari almost 11 years ago on July 1st 1993. Then I had a contract until the end of '95, which was renewed until the end of '98, 2001, 2004, 2006...

"In our business we have contracts with a specific duration. It is true to say that nobody has stayed such a long time in my position at Ferrari, and I'm very happy about that. And I think the company is happy as well. So it's a good combination. We are living in a world with a lot of speculation. We have to cope with that, but I would be very cautious about that speculation, particularly concerning myself."

Todt will continue to oversee the racing side of Ferrari, and from the outside the only difference is that he may occasionally arrive at the track a day or half a day later than he used to. One of his major headaches in the coming months will be to defend Ferrari's corner in the ongoing debate about cost reduction.

"We feel that it's important to have teams like Minardi and Jordan, who are doing a very good job. We know that F1 is very expensive, and we're having long discussions at the moment for the future of F1 to try to improve the revenues and try to reduce the costs. We know that for the moment F1 has become extremely expensive, and that's mainly due to this high competition between the top manufacturers."

Interestingly Jean suggests that changes are not always properly thought out, and he doesn't seem too excited about the upcoming changes to the qualifying rules.

"We must be very conscious that what is changed does really cover the problem, because sometimes when you decide some changes you realise afterwards that if changes are made with too much emotion, without enough thinking, that you don't achieve what you want. We have one example with qualifying at the moment.

"At the end of 2002 it was decided to have a different qualifying because the intention was to have more unpredictable racing, because Ferrari was too dominant. I remind you that Ferrari won 15 races out of 17 in 2002. To try to avoid that, there were some changes. Qualifying was one of those changes.

"Probably from Silverstone on we will go back almost to what we had before. We are completely in favour of introducing changes for engine, for chassis, for testing, if it does achieve what we want it to achieve. So it's a decision which has to be very carefully thought out, and if it's in this direction, we're happy to support it.

"We will only be happy to have the costs cut, as long as it achieves what it has to achieve. We are not happy when we spend a big amount of money - we would prefer to spend less."

That's the future, but in the mean time Todt's attention is focussed on winning the next race, and then the one after that. Ferrari has enjoyed an awesome start to this season, and yet as ever, Jean is getting too excited about it.

"I wish we could win each single race, but each single race is a big fight, a big battle, because we are facing very strong competition. We must be very humble, because it's very difficult. We have a lot of competitors, who are very strong. The biggest manufacturers in the world are involved in F1, and if they are involved it's to succeed, to win. So you can imagine the pressure we have behind us.

"I hope that we will be able to win more races, and of course to win the championship. It's true to say that it seems as though we're in a good situation in the championship now, but there are still 10 races to go. Indianapolis was the halfway point in the season. There are still many things that can happen. We have to be very focussed, very concentrated, and very cautious."