A year on from a sado-masochistic sex scandal that was the talk of Formula One, motor racing chief Max Mosley is still very much in charge.
Branded a paddock pariah after the News of the World tabloid exposed details of his sex life, the controversial Briton has recast himself as a savior of the sport and looks more entrenched than ever.
It would surprise nobody if, instead of standing down in October as he has said he would, the 68-year-old Mosley decided to seek re-election as president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Over the last year, he has secured a ringing endorsement from the FIA in a confidence vote and won a landmark case in England’s High Court against the newspaper for violation of privacy.
After batting off calls for his resignation, including murmurings from long-time friend and paddock ally Bernie Ecclestone, he is now being urged to stay on after 18 years at the helm.
It would, he has said, be “churlish” of him not to pay attention.
“It [the job] is interesting at the moment and to walk away would be to leave it [the sport] in a state of uncertainty, which is probably not the thing to do,” he told reporters at a lunch in London last month.
“But I don’t think I have to think about that until June or July,” added Mosley, an Oxford-educated lawyer whose father, Oswald, was founder of the pre-World War II British Union of Fascists and whose mother was society beauty Diana Mitford.
Mosley will not be in Melbourne for the start of the season next week, and is unlikely to appear in a grand prix paddock before Monaco in May, but he will still have his hands full.
With the world plunged into recession and carmakers feeling the pain, he has been pushing hard to cut costs and secure a stable future for a sport long associated with profligacy.
“There has been a Formula One bubble which rivals any credit bubble or housing bubble or IT bubble and there seems a reluctance to recognize that,” he said last month, describing the crisis as the worst he had experienced in 40 years’ involvement.
His response has brought him into conflict with some teams and manufacturers who want to save money but have their own ideas about how to do it and where the sport should be heading.
In the past week Mosley has raised the stakes further by presenting what amounts to a full-scale revolution, announcing the introduction of a voluntary £30 million (US$42.74 million) budget cap from next year with far-reaching implications.
Teams who accept it will be granted considerable technical freedom and space to innovate but will have to do so within a tight budget.
Those who reject such a measure will be allowed to spend what they want — in excess of US$300 million a year in some cases — but remain subject to tight technical controls that would level the playing field.
“There is no reason why cost-capped teams could not win races,” Mosley said. “The massive and highly organized unlimited-expenditure teams are perhaps likely to do a better job of going racing.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher was “astonished” by Formula One’s decision to alter the way the world championship is decided on the eve of the new season.
The former Ferrari driver said on Thursday on his Web site that the championship was wide open with many “question marks before the first races.”
The season begins at the Australian Grand Prix next Sunday.
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