Ari Vatanen factbox
Eurosport - Fri, 23 Oct 09:00:00 2009
Factbox on Ari Vatanen, who is standing to replace Max Mosley as president of the FIA, the governing body of motor sport.
* Born in Tuupovaara in eastern Finland, Vatanen made his world rally championship debut in 1974.
* Vatanen won the world championship in 1981, with British co-driver David Richards -- now the non-executive chairman of Aston Martin and head of Prodrive as well as former principal of the Benetton and BAR Formula One teams.
* He had a near-fatal accident in Argentina in 1985 that kept him out of the sport until 1987. On his return, he won the Paris-Dakar four times.
* Jean Todt, now his rival for FIA president, also competed against the Finn in the world championship before becoming his Peugeot team boss on the Dakar rally.
* In 1989, Todt flipped a coin to decide whether Vatanen or Belgian Jacky Ickx, his team mate, should win the Dakar after concerns that they were so competitive one might crash. It came down in the Finn's favour.
* The Finn last competed in the Dakar with Volkswagen in 2007.
* Vatanen, who has lived in southern France since 1993, was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 and was re-elected in 2004. He left parliament in 2009 after losing his seat.
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Comment 1 - 3 of 3
Will Bernie want Vatanen or Todt? Neither man is a pushover but is one of them more likely to want to work with him than the other? Vatanen reminds me very much of Mosely - even in looks. Todt reminds me of Napoleon.
The key factor is how long Bernie will be around to influence matters after the election. Then we will really see what type of person has been elected.
On balance, I think Vatanen is the better choice.
Well, when Dirty Max went up against Jean Marie Balestre, old Ecclescake told Jean there would be no problems with Jean winning, Ecclescake would make sure! Then behind the scenes, Ecclescake courted many of the voters and secretly got then to agree to back his 'best-mate' Dirty Max. Perhaps Ecclescake could be that devious again? Maybe the past will come back and bite Dirty Max on the bum. Oh sorry, of course he'd enjoy that I guess! Either way, F1 without Dirty Max? Yipee, yipee, yipee!
THIS is the man for me.
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