The man tipped to succeed Max Mosley as president of the FIA has spoken of his admiration for the man who is continuing to defy calls for his resignation after revelations about his part in a sado-masochistic orgy.

Jean Todt, the former team principal of the Ferrari Formula One team – he is still associated with the Scuderia – described Mosley as a hard-working, thorough and reliable individual of great intelligence.

Todt, who masterminded Michael Schumacher’s multiple world championships at Ferrari, also said that the scandal surrounding Mosley has not changed the way he does business with the FIA president and he hopes that he will carry on in his job for several more years.

The Frenchman did add, however, that he and everyone connected with the FIA would have to respect the rules of the organisation, which has been given the opportunity either to endorse Mosley or sack him at a general meeting of the 222 voting members in Paris on June 3.

“He is a true president,” Todt said in an interview with Le Journal de Dimanche, a Canadian newspaper. “He knows his business very well because he is a hard worker, thorough and reliable. He is very intelligent and with a rare elegance. He knows how to impose leadership when he has to, with an international authority.”

Todt said that Mosley had amassed an impressive record on safety in motor sport, which he believes his critics are ignoring. “He has worked very hard for safety,” Todt said. “When you see what motor racing was like 30 years ago, especially at the tracks, what he has accomplished is remarkable. The number of lives saved under his guidance is absolutely phenomenal. He has taken some courageous decisions sometimes against everyone. I’m therefore amazed to see that people are lingering on things which bear no relation to his position.

“I have a very good relationship with him. I regularly have conversations with him on the telephone and I do not see why that would not be the case any more. If you ask me, I’m happy with the actions of the president of the FIA since he’s been in office. I think he does a very good job.”

Todt’s effusive praise for Mosley, who has spoken of the Frenchman as an ideal successor to him in the past, is out of step with the private view of the majority of senior team figures in the Formula One paddock, who want Mosley to resign.

Todt’s long record in motor sport – both in Formula One and rallying – makes him ideally qualified to succeed Mosley when the Briton either resigns, is sacked or steps down at the end of next year. However, his unremittingly and unswervingly “Ferrari-focused” approach over the past ten years has led some critics to argue that he cannot now switch his focus to the disinterested role of FIA president.