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[McLaren Fan]

From F1 Live:

Max Mosley on Friday refused to rule out performing a u-turn on his earlier promise to step down as FIA President at the end of his current term in 2009. On a rare post-sex scandal visit to a Grand Prix paddock at Monza, the 68-year-old Briton said he is under pressure to commit for yet another term.

In April, Mosley admitted that continuing in the role into his 70s, 16 years after first accepting the presidency, would be very marginal.’ But he said at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza after Friday practice: "I have to say there is an awful lot of pressure coming from different parts of the world saying 'continue', which is very nice of them."

Mosley maintains that he would like to enjoy a quieter life when his current term ends.

"We'll see," he told reporters. "You can't rule anything out. You should never say never, as the old cliché goes. But at the moment my inclination is that I would like a quieter life."

It remains to be seen if his position is even tenable. FOM CEO Bernie Ecclestone for one was far from sure if Mosley was fit for office, let along another four years in in the role when speaking earlier this year.

"The problem is, if he stays until 2009, he will run again," Ecclestone said. "I am 100 percent certain about that; no, one million per cent certain. He feels there is still important work to do at the FIA.” “But in my view there is a way to accomplish this and retire at the end of the year at the FIA general assembly in November," he added.

E.A, Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

Well, let's face it, Mosley even considering staying on for longer is not a surprise. We all know what Mosley is like, we all know that he wants to reduce costs etc. in Formula One, probably seeing it as one of the main things for which he will be remembered, and Ecclestone said a couple of weeks ago he thinks that people should get behind Mosley.

[tifosi]

How did Mosley get elected? Was he different before he got elected and has he changed during his term?

[Denthúl]

Hmm. I'm all for the cost-cutting, to be honest, but under his rule the FIA has been a mess of an organisation in many ways.

[texasmr2]

That is very disperaging new's but not really surprising.

[bud]

im not surprised he said this, infact i was expecting it!
Can read this twat like a book

[McLaren Fan]

How did Mosley get elected? Was he different before he got elected and has he changed during his term?

The last time I looked, there was a good article about him on Wikipedia (if my university found out I referred some to or used Wikipedia myself, I'd get a roasting from a few of my professors. ) Basically, what happened was Max Mosley was head of March Engineering, so was invited to a GPCA meeting sometime in the late 1960s ad early '70s. On top of this, his expertise as a lawyer came in handy. He became good friends with Ecclestone and the two of them formed FOCA, a much more slick version of the GPCA. Ecclestone was the president of this new organisation and Mosley still was involved with March. A number of years later, Mosley left March and became Ecclestone's legal adviser, but he was so powerful he was basically co-ruling it with Ecclestone. After the FISA-FOCA War, he left FOCA and went into politics, or should I say, another version of politics with the British Conservative Party as opposed to Formula One. Towards the end of the '80s, he made a comeback to Formula One, helping to found the Simtek team. In 1991, he challenged Balestre's position as head of FISA. His reason for standing was because he felt what Balestre did to Senna in his feud with Prost was wrong and convinced him that FISA was biased. On top of this, Balestre was head of the French motorsports authority, so Mosley claimed there was a conflict of interest between that and his job at FISA. Mosley won the vote and stood down one year after first being elected, claiming he wanted to show people that he does what he says. In 1992, he was reelected to a four-year term as head of FISA. The FIA was restructured in 1993, with FISA being abolished. Mosley then became President of the FIA. In 2002 (I think), he announced plans for Presidents to have a two-term limit. Mosley, of course, made sure that this wasn't retrospective, hence he's still in power today.

In my view, Mosley has done some good for Formula One, but a hell of a lot more bad. He has done a lot for safety in Formula One after Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed and some of his safety plans for Formula One spilled over into road cars. He also saved the sport from a financial crisis back in the late 1990s when tobacco advertising in sports was to be banned, successfully securing a temporary exemption for Formula One. Apart from that, the rest is bad. Ironically, the FIA is just as biased as it ever was. When Balestre was running the show, Renault and Prost got preferential treatment. Now, Ferrari seem to be running the show and the teams that would not sign the new Concorde Agreements back in 1997 and a few years ago were punished. And, of course, Mosley's grudge match with Ron Dennis and McLaren still goes on. On top of this, some of the decisions made are plain crazy. Take the weird penalties meted out to Bourdais at the Hungarian Grand Prix or Kovalainen at the French Grand Prix. Then, there's corruption in the decision-making process, with Alan Donnelly floating around as Mosley's representative at Grands Prix, whose own company has the FIA and Ferrari as its clients. And that's still not the end of it, for decisions are made to prolong the championship battles to boast television audiences. Politics still dominates the show, with Ecclestone and Mosley falling out over the Nazi-orgy scandal and then calling a truce to combat the teams who are getting uppity about the amount of cash they're receiving. And, of course, there is no accountability for all of this corruption. Ferrari have more seats on the WMSC then anybody else, and as it's one country one vote, you can bribe the likes of Liechtenstein with various inducements to force your legislation or whatever through - exactly how Mosley is still in power at the minute.

[Mikep99]

Here is what Max says about the SPA incident

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/motor-racing/raikkonen-sets-pace-after-new-ferrari-deal-928832.html

The least surprising thing was that Max Mosley, the president of motor sport's world governing body, the FIA, in his first pukka public appearance at a race since the umpalumpa orgy scandal that broke at the end of March, vehemently defended the decision to demote Hamilton to third place after his victory in last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix with the controversial application of a retrospective 25-second time penalty that was the result of his supposedly gaining an advantage after being forced by Raikkonen to cut a chicane. In some ways, that new cause célèbre was manna from heaven as it drew fire from questions over Mosley's private life.

"The British press have given into hysteria and proved they are incapable of writing objectively," he suggested. "The notion that the FIA have an agenda involving Ferrari or McLaren is absolute nonsense and a lot of people have allowed this issue to distort their judgement."

Regarding the angry reaction to the Belgian decision, he said with bombast: "It couldn't be more nonsensical. If we wanted to do something bad there are so many things that we could do that you would never begin to see. There are a thousand things we could do that would make all the difference. We never dream of doing that because the moment you do that, you destroy the whole basis.

"Everybody in England and a lot of people outside England really want Lewis to win. And good that they do, but they allow that to distort their judgement. I am not going to express an opinion one way or another about Belgium and in fact I haven't seen it enough to even have a view, but it's natural, if you want your man to win, you are on his side. But the stewards have to be impartial.

"Once it began raining it obviously became very thrilling, but the issue the stewards had to determine was – did he or did he not derive an advantage. They had a view and the supporters of Lewis had a view, although whether it's a view you agree with is another matter."

[onelapdown]

I think to be fair to him Max's words on the Spa incident are the correct ones. As head of the FIA he is duty-bound to defend the stewards from accusations of bias, but on the other hand he has avoided making any comment one way or the other about a decision that is subject to appeal.

Max gets a very bad press and in the last few years a lot of that has been deserved, but it is worth remembering that:
1) He demonstrated a significant amount of skill in wrestling the sport out of the hands of Balestre, who was at that point becoming increasingly gaga but was nevertheless no pushover. Had this not happened a lot of the development of the popularity of the sport in the 1990s may not have happened.
2) He made swift, decisive and well-judged moves to improve the safety of the sport after Senna's death, which in my view is his defining achievement.
3) In the wake of the credit crunch, you could say that his moves for several years now to limit costs have proved to be very well judged. One only has to look at the vast number of teams that collapsed during or were crippled by the last major recession in the early 1990s to see how crucial this is.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the man. I think he's arrogant, that he really ought to have quit over the News of the World scandal, and that he can not under any circumstances continue beyond his current term of office. But he has done a considerable amount of good for the sport which we should not forget.

[racechick]

From [i]F1 Live:

Mosley maintains that he would like to enjoy a quieter life when his current term ends.

.

Yes Max, we'd all lke that...SO QUIT!!

[8-ball]

I think to be fair to him Max's words on the Spa incident are the correct ones. As head of the FIA he is duty-bound to defend the stewards from accusations of bias, but on the other hand he has avoided making any comment one way or the other about a decision that is subject to appeal.

Max gets a very bad press and in the last few years a lot of that has been deserved, but it is worth remembering that:
1) He demonstrated a significant amount of skill in wrestling the sport out of the hands of Balestre, who was at that point becoming increasingly gaga but was nevertheless no pushover. Had this not happened a lot of the development of the popularity of the sport in the 1990s may not have happened.
2) He made swift, decisive and well-judged moves to improve the safety of the sport after Senna's death, which in my view is his defining achievement.
3) In the wake of the credit crunch, you could say that his moves for several years now to limit costs have proved to be very well judged. One only has to look at the vast number of teams that collapsed during or were crippled by the last major recession in the early 1990s to see how crucial this is.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the man. I think he's arrogant, that he really ought to have quit over the News of the World scandal, and that he can not under any circumstances continue beyond his current term of office. But he has done a considerable amount of good for the sport which we should not forget.

Good post onelapdown i agree 100%. The time has come for him to honor his word and retire but I doubt that will happen

[bud]

Regarding the angry reaction to the Belgian decision, he said with bombast: "It couldn't be more nonsensical. If we wanted to do something bad there are so many things that we could do that you would never begin to see. There are a thousand things we could do that would make all the difference. We never dream of doing that because the moment you do that, you destroy the whole basis

well the fact he knows theres things he could do, wouldnt this entail that he has thought about it

but you never dream of doing it(yet you just did for you to know about it) and now you have destroyed the whole basis of your honour Max

[AKR]

How did Mosley get elected? Was he different before he got elected and has he changed during his term?

The last time I looked, there was a good article about him on Wikipedia (if my university found out I referred some to or used Wikipedia myself, I'd get a roasting from a few of my professors. ) Basically, what happened was Max Mosley was head of March Engineering, so was invited to a GPCA meeting sometime in the late 1960s ad early '70s. On top of this, his expertise as a lawyer came in handy. He became good friends with Ecclestone and the two of them formed FOCA, a much more slick version of the GPCA. Ecclestone was the president of this new organisation and Mosley still was involved with March. A number of years later, Mosley left March and became Ecclestone's legal adviser, but he was so powerful he was basically co-ruling it with Ecclestone. After the FISA-FOCA War, he left FOCA and went into politics, or should I say, another version of politics with the British Conservative Party as opposed to Formula One. Towards the end of the '80s, he made a comeback to Formula One, helping to found the Simtek team. In 1991, he challenged Balestre's position as head of FISA. His reason for standing was because he felt what Balestre did to Senna in his feud with Prost was wrong and convinced him that FISA was biased. On top of this, Balestre was head of the French motorsports authority, so Mosley claimed there was a conflict of interest between that and his job at FISA. Mosley won the vote and stood down one year after first being elected, claiming he wanted to show people that he does what he says. In 1992, he was reelected to a four-year term as head of FISA. The FIA was restructured in 1993, with FISA being abolished. Mosley then became President of the FIA. In 2002 (I think), he announced plans for Presidents to have a two-term limit. Mosley, of course, made sure that this wasn't retrospective, hence he's still in power today.

In my view, Mosley has done some good for Formula One, but a hell of a lot more bad. He has done a lot for safety in Formula One after Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna were killed and some of his safety plans for Formula One spilled over into road cars. He also saved the sport from a financial crisis back in the late 1990s when tobacco advertising in sports was to be banned, successfully securing a temporary exemption for Formula One. Apart from that, the rest is bad. Ironically, the FIA is just as biased as it ever was. When Balestre was running the show, Renault and Prost got preferential treatment. Now, Ferrari seem to be running the show and the teams that would not sign the new Concorde Agreements back in 1997 and a few years ago were punished. And, of course, Mosley's grudge match with Ron Dennis and McLaren still goes on. On top of this, some of the decisions made are plain crazy. Take the weird penalties meted out to Bourdais at the Hungarian Grand Prix or Kovalainen at the French Grand Prix. Then, there's corruption in the decision-making process, with Alan Donnelly floating around as Mosley's representative at Grands Prix, whose own company has the FIA and Ferrari as its clients. And that's still not the end of it, for decisions are made to prolong the championship battles to boast television audiences. Politics still dominates the show, with Ecclestone and Mosley falling out over the Nazi-orgy scandal and then calling a truce to combat the teams who are getting uppity about the amount of cash they're receiving. And, of course, there is no accountability for all of this corruption. Ferrari have more seats on the WMSC then anybody else, and as it's one country one vote, you can bribe the likes of Liechtenstein with various inducements to force your legislation or whatever through - exactly how Mosley is still in power at the minute.

You mention that Balestre preferred Prost and Renault in his day. I assume this was because Balestre was French. So Ferrari is Italian and Max Mosley English so how does your theory work here Chris. But if it is true then Max Mosley is one smart Englishman. I personally don't dislike the guy so if I were allowed to vote for this re-election, then I would vote for Max Mosley.

[al4x]

id vote for whoever will actually introduce a budget cap!

whether its mosley or the pope!