Fabien Calvet new FIA Delegate

14. February 2006At the beginning of this year the Frenchman Fabien Calvet was appointed technical arbitrator and delegate of the FIA. Now, little by little, further details leaked out. It was said that his predecessor, Carlos Funes, will be present at the next 3 races, as well, whereas Gordon Forbes, who held this position for years (much to the satisfaction of most of the truck racers) and who was still present now and again to give support, is not mentioned at all. This means that the Franco-Iberian predominance on the committee will persist. <br />
There is, however, no doubt about the technical competence of the journalist for commercial vehicles and truck racer Calvet. And lack of competence was the point the teams complaint about last year. In fact, it seems that the FIA officials had matters not really under control during the last season. There were serious disagreements about the SuperRaceTrucks right from the beginning. Entry forms were distributed and the potential participants got confirmations. Then, however, the FIA okayed time schedules where the SRT wasn't even mentioned, which resulted in the disgraceful spectacle in Assen. There were disagreements again and again during the whole season – and often about marginal things. The 'high point' of negative incidents were the first minutes after the accident Manolo Gozalo had in Jamara that Saturday. The local marshals were completely on their own and at a loss, but no one from the decision makers was at the scene. So some dubious decisions were made that were not quite in accordance with the regulations – to say it politely. The consequence hereof was that some drivers and some teams felt unfairly treated. <br />
With Fabien Calvet there is now a representative on the committee, who – having once been a pilot himself – knows not only about the everlasting conflicts between teams and pilots on one side and the officials on the other side, but can judge things from a driver’s point of view. So expectations are high. Nevertheless, his nomination came as a surprise, cause on Monday morning after the final at Le Mans he was seen sitting in the cockpit of a Buggyra for some test laps. So a comeback as a pilot would have been less surprising.