Todt to Testify in Vodafone Court Case

World Champion Formula One team Ferrari confirmed today that their team principal Jean Todt will testify in London's High Court next week in the Jordan versus Vodafone case.

Privateer team boss Eddie Jordan is fighting telecommunications company Vodafone for $150 million (USD) of sponsorship money because, he claims, they had agreed a verbal deal with Jordan but chose instead to back Ferrari.

The case began eight days ago in London's High Court. Jordan has already represented his team and a Ferrari spokesman confirmed: "Jean Todt is a testimony in this case and I understand he will be in the court next week."

An article in the Sunday Times reported that Jordan had claimed to have been bullied and effectively blackmailed by Ferrari over his plans to take Vodafone to court.

The under-funded privateer team had hoped to receive an $8 million (USD) handout from the manufacturer-backed teams in a proposed 'fighting fund' designed to help the smaller teams survive.

But the Sunday Times claimed that Todt, in a letter to Jordan, had said the fund would only be given Ferrari's support if he dropped his court case against Vodafone.

"Initially we were ready to find a solution under which we would have waived in your favour some of our rights," the newspaper quoted a letter from Todt as saying. "We wrote (to Bernie Ecclestone) on February 26, 2003 that we agreed with the proposed new solution (the fighting fund) provided you would withdraw your claim against Vodafone."

It is also widely reported that Jordan's director of business affairs Ian Phillips last week testified to misleading the team's current sponsor, tobacco giant Benson and Hedges, for a month after agreeing a verbal deal with Vodafone.

The case continues and it is expected to end next week, sometime between the return of the teams from this weekend's European Grand Prix and their departure for next weekend's French Grand Prix.