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'Todt is a poor man's Mosley' - Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone: "The FIA is a joke" © Sutton Images

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Bernie Ecclestone has launched a verbal attack on FIA president Jean Todt and once again slammed plans to introduce four cylinder engines to Formula One.

Ecclestone said Todt does not stack up to his predecessor Max Mosley, who the F1 CEO has been very close to for several decades.

"Jean Todt is a poor man's Max," he told the Daily Express. "He has been travelling around the world doing what Max didn't do too much - kissing the babies and shaking the hands. It is probably good for the FIA but we don't need it in Formula One."

Ecclestone has taken a particular dislike to the FIA's decision to replace the current V8 engines in F1 with smaller capacity turbo-charged units, which he describes as a "complete joke". He added: "It's not Formula One - it doesn't sound anything like Formula One".

He singled out KERS, which is returning to the sport this year after it flopped in 2009, as an example of a green technology that has little relevance to F1.

"It has just cost an awful lot of money and I don't know what it has proven," he said. "I don't think anyone knows or cares what it is or what it does. I get upset with these things."

He said it was proof that F1's financial stakeholders, such as the teams and Formula One Management, should have dictate the regulations rather than the FIA.

"We should write the rules with the teams," he said. "The competitors have got to race and have got a big investment. We have got a big investment. We should write the rules, give them to the FIA and they should make sure they are followed. It should be like the police - the police don't write the rules and say you've got to do 30mph. The FIA is a joke."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.