Why do you want to be FIA President?
"Throughout my career, as a competitor, manager, team principal and chief executive I have enjoyed success in an intensely competitive environment. I've worked with incredibly talented and dedicated people, teams and organisations with great passion, pride and commitment. Now working closely with my candidacy team, I want to bring all the experience I have gained throughout my career and apply it for the benefit of the FIA and its membership.

"In the last few weeks I have found it inspirational working with my team, Nick Craw, Brian Gibbons and Graham Stoker. Together we have developed a policy agenda for the FIA which we all think is exciting and offers a new vision of how the FIA should develop in the years ahead. I'm very hopeful that we will be given the chance to implement what we have proposed. It is quite humbling to think that we could be given the opportunity to help shape the future of the FIA in this way.

"I have been very fortunate in my career to have enjoyed considerable success in motor sport. Like so many others in our sport I have benefited from the hard work of previous leaders of the FIA in creating a global platform on which to compete. I feel that for me the time is now right to give something back to the sport and the FIA's clubs that have given me so much."

What values characterise your election team and if elected would characterise your Presidency?
"Above all teamwork, which has been the hallmark of my management style for the last 28 years. Together with a commitment to excellence and innovation it will be through teamwork that all the clubs, zones and regions of the FIA will be able to unite around a new vision for our future."

What are the biggest challenges facing motor sport today?
"We need to ensure that motor sport is as safe and sustainable - economically and environmentally - as we possibly can. We need to do more to encourage the growth of motor sport in the emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The world's car population will more than double in the next few decades and inevitably this will increase interest in the sport. That is why we must also ensure that motor sport is more accessible both for competitors and officials at every level with clear programmes for training and best practice, clear pathways for competition and improvement.

"Ensuring the environmental relevance and sustainability of motor sport will not only act to safeguard our sport from those who would criticise it but, more significantly, it will allow the sport to become a catalyst for technological change which can have great social relevance worldwide. From an engineering and technical perspective and from a marketing and promotional perspective, motor sport can pioneer green technologies of immense benefit to the motoring public. We have only just started to do this but with the understanding and support of all the stakeholders so much more can be achieved.

"We all know how dangerous motor sport can be. Like millions of Formula One fans I watched Felipe's accident on television at home. It's only human to fear the worst in those situations. The FIA's safety and medical systems worked well and I'm sure that the helmet design developed by the FIA and the FIA Institute's experts saved Felipe's life. His accident came only days after the tragic incident involving Henry Surtees. I can only echo the comments made by John Surtees after the loss of his son, we must constantly review our approach to safety, learn from every incident and apply that knowledge systematically to improving standards."

What are the biggest challenges facing the motorist and motoring clubs today?
"In a very difficult economic environment we must redouble our effort to make motoring as safe, clean and affordable as possible. That is the ‘Mobility for all' agenda that FIA clubs want to promote. Working together the clubs have achieved a great deal already, for example, contributing enormously to the success of the Make Roads Safe and Make Cars Green campaigns.

"At the same time the FIA can help grow its club network, increase their membership levels, and exchange best practice in consumer protection and tourism services. Our teams candidate Deputy President for Mobility, Brian Gibbons of the New Zealand AA leads one of the most commercially successful motoring clubs in the world and I am convinced he has the experience we need to fully realize the benefits of the FIA's merger the Alliance International de Tourisme."

Your opponent has proposed to change the FIA voting system to give more votes to the biggest clubs with the largest membership. Do you think the voting system of the FIA should be changed in this way?
"I don't agree with this idea at all. It would concentrate power and decision-making in the FIA in the hands of a just a few mobility clubs that have large memberships simply because they happen to exist in countries with large populations. That would be unfair and undemocratic. "The FIA is the equivalent of the United Nations for global motor sport and mobility. Like the UN every member of the FIA has the right to vote, irrespective of their size. I am committed to this fundamental principle because it ensures that the democratic rights of all our clubs, big or small, are equally balanced.

"Quite rightly an FIA presidential candidate can only be successful if he and his team appeal to a broad range of the FIA membership, large or small, motoring or motor sport."