Racing
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Jean Todt says Dietrich Mateschitz twice came to his home in Paris to offer him control of Red Bull’s Formula 1 team and wider motorsport operation after his Ferrari exit, but he turned it down because he felt his time in frontline team management was over.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, the former Ferrari boss said Mateschitz “wanted me to join, so he came to have lunch at home in Paris with me twice.” The role on offer was, in Todt’s words, “to run the team and to run the motorsport activities of Red Bull.”
Todt said he rejected it because he had already done what he wanted to do in that part of the sport. “I said no because for me, this chapter was over,” he said. He added that he had been “running an iconic brand with success,” so “in a way, I could not do better,” and wanted “to do other things.”
The approach came after Todt left Ferrari in March 2008, at a point when Christian Horner was already in place as team principal and Helmut Marko was the team’s advisor. Todt’s decision meant he stepped away from team operations instead of taking on a central role at a Red Bull organization that would soon become a major force in Formula 1.
That made the offer significant because of the record he had built at Ferrari. Todt joined the team in the 1990s and helped assemble the leadership group that included Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne. Ferrari then won five consecutive drivers’ titles from 2000 to 2004 and six constructors’ championships in that span, establishing one of the sport’s defining eras.
Todt said his focus after Ferrari had shifted toward public service and charity work. “I decided in 2008 that it was time to give something back,” he said. “My interest was to give something back.”
He later took that route into the FIA presidency, winning election in 2009 and serving three terms until 2021. He also moved into road-safety and charity work, including a role as United Nations Special Envoy for Road Safety.
Explaining that choice, Todt said the world of competition can make people lose sight of wider responsibilities. “In some worlds, when there is competitiveness, money, people forget that,” he said. He added that it is important “to travel to see poverty, to see people who don’t have access to medical care, people who don’t have access to public transportation, and to try to give a little hand.”
For Red Bull, it stands as a glimpse of a different path the team explored before its championship rise. For Todt, it was the moment he chose to leave team-building behind and move toward the governing and humanitarian work that defined the next phase of his career.