Victory is sweet for Todt no matter who wins

“I could never believe that we could do such a season: 14 wins, eight times first and second, fourth first and second in a row, 205 points, an absolute record in the history of Formula One, Michael with 134 points after 16 races. I mean the numbers are unbelievable, they are hard to believe and they are true. We need to be first and second in the next race to have twice as many points as everyone else."

The American press reacted in a negative way to the end of the race after Michael Schumacher eased off and Rubens Barrichello crept in for the win. But for Todt the moment was nothing but positive for the whole team.

“You know here, honestly in all fairness, I think it’s sweet… for me, I can understand that,” said Todt. “In Austria some people could have had a tougher understanding like thinking it’s arrogant, it’s typical but here, honestly, it’s between us, the team. We were not penalising anybody. In Austria you could say we were penalising Montoya, who could have had four points, or something different. But here, I think it’s a nice thing.” Jean rejected any idea that the sport has suffered from such actions by his driver’s. “We are in a sport where we have commercial interests. We just feel that in the interests of the team, of our partners, commercial, sponsors, technical, it is to win races.”

“No team orders, there was no need for team orders. Seriously, the only thing that was said was that after the second pit stop they should not fight any more. And there was no more fighting after the second pit stop. Michael could have won, but he wanted to have Rubens very close to him which we were very happy about, because as I said just now, we love Michael, we love Rubens, but we work for Ferrari and that’s the only thing that really does matter for us. It was not planned. It happened like that. I was told it was seven centimetres. For us it isn’t something that matters. What does matter is to have two Ferraris first and second. We can put it the way we want. That’s our position.”

“I think it would be very presumptuous and not humble at all to say that we are controlling everything. We are not controlling everything, we try to, we do our best, but we don’t want drivers to fight against each other if it is not in the interests of the company. Rubens is happy, Michael is happy, we are happy. It is not something that he was really looking for. It was not so intentional. He did not do anything to avoid it, but he didn’t really do it on purpose. He wanted to aim close as possible. He wanted to cross the finishing line as close possible to one another. It went in Rubens favour. It’s obvious that Michael was waiting so that they would finish close together.”

The fact that Todt got a call from Bernie Ecclestone after the race to offer his congratulations is the highest praise that in no way did Ferrari make a mockery of the sport and they put on a wonderful show for the US fans who turned out to watch the race.