'Shots fired' by Todt at Ben Sulayem in rare interview this week

At around the same time and in the aftermath, many people departed the organisation as the FIA's first non-European took office and started to make his mark with immediate effect. Including cleaning up Todt's final gift to F1, the Michael Masi affair that forever sullied one of the greatest contests our sport ever witnessed - Max Verstappen versus Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Ben Sulayem's team were left with the spillover from the moment they took office. Inevitably, when one regime replaces another, the trash-talking is inevitable, with reports of Todt leaving an FIA in chaos, including financially.

Todt has remained relatively silent on the matter until this week, but now it is 'shots fired' back by the 77-year-old unleashed a firm rebuttal in an interview with L'Equipe: "When I left [the FIA Presidency] there must have been more than 250-million euros in reserves.

"When I arrived in 2009, there were barely 40-million, although the FIA had just ceded the commercial rights to F1 for a hundred years a few years earlier," said the Frenchman, who took the Presidency in 2009, succeeding Max Mosley's controversy-packed reign, as well as inheriting an organisation in disarray at the time.

"When I left, the budget had been multiplied by almost three," Insisted Todt. "With many new competitions and sources of income, such as Formula E, the World Endurance Championship and the Rally Raid Championship.

"It is true, we left one unfinished dispute when I left, the Halo trial but it wasn't swept under the rug. It was well documented and monitored. We presented it to the FIA Senate and the World Council before I left, and the current president attended this presentation.

"This was a lawsuit brought in Texas by an engineer who owned a patent that was only valid in the United States and for a short time. So when I left, there was nothing secret, and only one ongoing case, that one."

As for the criticism and even allegations levelled at him, Todt said: "I wasn't surprised. I knew who my successor [Ben Sulayem] was. I know the character. I start from the principle that when one chapter closes, another opens and we do not allow ourselves to attack a predecessor."

Before Todt became FIA President he was team principal of some great racing organisations, including his spell as Ferrari boss, he spawned the Italian team's golden Michael Schumacher era.

He insists he has not burnt any bridges during his illustrious career on the racing side of the sport: "Whether leaving Peugeot, Ferrari or the FIA, I never said a bad word. There's no point in launching into allegations, especially when they're false. The reality is what I just told you.

"I'll add something regarding revenues of the FIA: It was under my presidency that the Hundred Year Agreement and Concorde Agreements between the FIA and F1 were renegotiated [in 2007] before Liberty Media became the owner of the FOM.

"Without going into detail, I can tell you that the income received by the Federation has very clearly increased compared to before. Its position in the governance of F1 has also been restored. It now has a third of the votes, along with FOM and the teams. It's night and day with previous agreements.

"You can't stop someone from criticising or disagreeing, but everything I have done during my presidency has always been approved by the Senate and the World Councils. Everything that was put in place during my mandate was turned upside down," declared Todt, alluding to the changes made during the first term of the sport's current Chief Ben Sulayem.