Confession time

I know that it may seem strange that I went to the FIA General Assembly and wrote only a few lines. In my defence I can say that those were THE important lines, as I was able to break the news to the world that Jean Todt had been elected. This was achieved by using good old-fashioned cunning.

I wore a suit.

This meant that I was able to mingle with the FIA delegates without getting thrown out by the muscle-headed security people, as were many of my press colleagues. I might even have sneaked into the room where the event was taking place if I had really wanted to – which I didn’t. Anyway, by standing around at the exit of the meeting room and playing with an iPhone I looked like a lot of those taking part and so I was able to get the result seconds after it was known and by the time the word reached the room in which the media were imprisoned I had already put a story on the Web… I have to confess that I wrote the three lines in advance and only had to fill in two numbers as I have been convinced for some time that Jean Todt was going to win by a landslide. Why? Because his campaign was much more convincing than that of Ari Vatanen, who seemed to spend his time slagging off the FIA, the system, Max Mosley and Jean Todt. You do not win elections with negativity. You win elections with convincing ideas and careful politicking.

I talked to various FIA folk that I know and to Vatanen, who seemed rather shell-shocked by it all. I was going to go to Jean Todt’s press conference, but in the end I did not want to be trampled by TV crews and beaten around the head with cameras and, in any case, I had to get away rather quickly as the voting and counting process took so long that I ran out of time. This was because some votes are split between two or more clubs and they have to agree with one another in order for the vote to be valid so there were sealed votes within sealed votes.

By a quirk of scheduling I found myself in something of a quandary because while the FIA election is obviously important; just down the road at the Mairie de Paris, there was a conference about British secret agents in France during World War II, to which I was invited. Now you can say that a professional F1 journalist would stay at the FIA and do the job there, but I would counter that by saying that as a professional researcher and book writer (which I also am) talking to old secret agents and making contacts in that world is hard, not least because the number of survivors dwindles each year. In case you are struggling to find the connection between motor racing and secret agents, I should perhaps add (shamelessly) that I wrote a book in 2007 called “The Grand Prix Saboteurs” and, although I am totally biased, I do believe that any racing fan would love the true story of how three Grand Prix winners worked for the secret Special Operations Executive sabotage networks in France. If you don’t know about it, you can click here to find out. (By the way, a Great Christmas present for the racing fan who has everything!)

The opportunity to meet people who were actually involved with “my saboteurs”, or family members of those involved, was simply too much to ignore and I certainly did not regret my decision. I met all manner of fascinating people, the most striking of which was Bob Maloubier, an amazingly sprightly 86, who has a quite extraordinary story. Not only was he a British agent with SOE, but later became a member of the British Special Boat Service (which is basically the SAS with flippers) before establishing a French equivalent and then going on to a life as, among other things, a forester, the head of the Presidential Guard in Gabon and an oil man with Shell and then Elf. He first told me of an adventure he had with Robert Benoist (one of the Grand Prix Saboteurs) which I had not heard before. We went on to discuss all manner of things. When he mentioned being a diver and having worked for Elf, I said: “Then you must know Francois Guiter!”

Of course he did. Indeed Malboubier was recently a guest of Guiter at the historic Grand Prix meeting in Angouleme.

Guiter is a legend in Formula 1 circles who almost single-handedly created modern French motor racing as the marketing manager of Elf from 1967 onwards, funding Matra, Renault and Tyrrell and paying for the Volant Elf scheme which provided France with a string of top line racing drivers in the 1970s and 1980s. Probably the most discreet individual in F1 history, Guiter was also a diver with a shadowy organisation called the 11eme Choc and went on to become a wellknown underwater film maker producing more than 20 films, notably with Jacques Cousteau. This morning when looking for a picture of Guiter I found a shot of him and Maloubier together in Angouleme (Francois is on the right), which I have borrowed from a terrific French website about historic racing called memoiresdestands.hautetfort.com.

Maloubier, incidentally, was also the man responsible for the Blancpain 50 Fathoms diver’s watch, which I am told is a much sought-after item by the watch collectors of the world. He is also the owner of the prototype which they say is worth more money than the average Ferrari. Bob was also the recipient of a British Military Cross, a Distinguished Service Order and France’s Croix de Guerre.

There was a certain symmetry to discussions about Guiter because earlier at the FIA General Assembly I talked with Nicolas Deschaux, the head of the French Federation about the piteous state of French motorsport as there is now no Grand Prix, and Pau has been cancelled. We agreed that what France needs now is another Guiter…

So, I am sorry there were only three lines about the FIA election but sometimes there are things that are as important, or more important than motor racing. I am sure that I will have many opportunities to talk to Jean Todt and his people in the years ahead…