Jean Todt under pressure after gaffe over Paris memorial

'Do you realise that the number of people killed in road accidents is by far bigger than the number of people who died in Paris?'

FIA president Jean Todt (Getty Images)

Formula One is bracing itself for further criticism of the FIA president, Jean Todt, as the second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety opens in Brasilia on Wednesday.

The event is bringing together 1,500 participants from 150 countries in the world’s largest debate on road safety. But Todt’s appointment as a special envoy to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has not gone down well with those who believe motor sport and road safety are uneasy bedfellows.

Todt’s insistence on holding a minute’s silence shortly before Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix solely to honour a world day of remembrance for road traffic victims, rather than the victims of Friday’s terrorist atrocities in Paris, is increasingly being seen as an indication that he should consider stepping down from his role with motor sport’s world governing body.

The Frenchman earned himself huge opprobrium when, in a televised interview for France’s Canal+, he made an insensitive comparison between the number of people killed in road accidents and the terrorists’ casualty list, saying: “Do you realise that the number of people killed in road accidents is by far bigger than the number of people who died in Paris?”

He allegedly declined an offer by the station to better express his thoughts before adding: “We had decided a minute of silence and, of course, we can’t ignore what happened in Paris. We will thus have a moment of attention for what happened there.”

There was clear evidence of pressure behind the scenes when a pre-race announcement asked spectators to “join in a minute’s silence for those who have lost their lives or have been injured in road traffic accidents and to show our solidarity with the people of France”. For Todt, it was too little, too late.