FIA president Jean Todt has stated that he plans to stand down as the head of the sport's governing body after only a single term in charge, suggesting that he had no inclination to try and match Max Mosley's "crazy" era in charge.
Todt took over from Mosley last October, after beating fan-favourite and rally driver Ari Vatanen in a hard-fought election battle. But despite Todt following the 16 year reign of Mosley, the Frenchman has insisted that he has "other things" he wants to do after his time as the FIA boss, and will stand down in 2013 at the end of his current four-year spell in charge.
"I will stay for only one office [term]," the former Ferrari and Peugeot motorsport boss confirmed to the Gazzetta dello Sport. "It's crazy to think Mosley was there for 16 years.
"I have other things I want to do and life is too short."
He added that he was already feeling similar stresses to those he encountered as team boss for Ferrari and Peugeot.
"The stress is not diminished, just different," he explained, "Compared to Peugeot and Ferrari, the only difference was that I was well paid to work there! Instead, I do this for my passion and to make a contribution to the sport that I love."
In the same interview, Todt confirmed that the current F1 rules will allow new teams to miss up to three races next season, amid concerns that neither Campos Meta nor USF1 will be ready to race in Bahrain. Todt confirmed that teams would be free to miss any three rounds of their choosing, not necessarily the first three in a row.
"In the last World Council the opportunity for a team to not participate in three rounds of the championship, also not consecutively, was granted," Todt explained.
He also clarified that the 14th F1 team angling for a place on the grid, Serbian outfit Stefan GP, would not be automatically promoted to the grid if either or both of the struggling teams were forced to withdraw.
"If a team drops out of the championship, the insertion of a new team is not automatic," he insisted, "It is always up to the FIA to decide whether someone is eligible or not."
Todt also confirmed that the governing body was pushing on with plans to fully license the sport after the humbling of the FIA over the lifetime ban handed to Flavio Briatore over the Fixgate affair.
"We shall return to...the matter of licenses, so that all teams managers have to hold them," Todt asserted.
The FIA saw the ban they handed to former Renault boss Briatore, and a similar five year one to former Renault technical director Pat Symonds, overturned by a French court last month, after the judge ruled that the FIA had no jurisdiction over the two men.
But Todt, who has begun to challenge the appeal with the FIA, insisted that the French ruling did not change the fact that Briatore and Symonds were guilty of fixing the result of the 2008 Singapore GP, adding that the court overturned the ban on "procedural" issues.
"Proof? The facts were so obvious that [Pat Symonds] apologised," Todt raged when asked whether Briatore was still guilty, "At the World Council, there was only one vote against the penalty."
After the ban was overturned, Briatore mocked the FIA and seemingly believed that the successful appeal proved he was innocent, rather than simply that the FIA was not authorised to punish him.
Finally, in what proved a lengthy and mixed interview with the Italian paper, Todt revealed plans to cut costs by potentially introducing a "unique aerodynamic package" into the F1 rules, effectively limiting the teams to one aero setup for the whole season.
"It will cause grip problems in Monaco? Even better, we will see the skills of the drivers!" was how Todt shrugged off criticism of his mad scheme.
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