Max Mosley has been head of the FIA for 15 years. Earlier this year, he pledged that when his term ends next year, he would step down – and that was before the infamous sex scandal. Yet even after the turpitude, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone – whose Christmas card brought the whole thing up again – noted there was no way that Max would step down, saying, "I've always said that Max will be the president until he dies" because he believes Mosley enjoys confrontation and power.
From the looks of it, Mosley is beginning to prove Ecclestone correct. The FIA president has now said that he will wait until next June to decide whether he will step down or not. That's only three months before his term ends, and unless a challenger decides to campaign while Mosley deliberates, it's unlikely that 90 days would be enough to unseat Lord Mosley. According to Ecclestone, Mosley won the vote of confidence after the sex scandal after bribing representatives from third world countries to back him. Between his power and political skill, it's hard to believe that Max will vacate his post until he decides to do it himself.
Formula One impresario Bernie Ecclestone's Christmas tradition is to send a mischievous card to friends. The past few years he probably hasn't had to work too hard to come up with something -- in fact, it's probably taken more time to figure out which particular F1 shenanigan he wanted to portray. This year, Bernie looked no further than one of his best friends, Max Mosley. Max was embroiled in an ugly sex scandal earlier this year, and Ecclestone's card depicts Max meting out the same justice to F1 team bosses that a room full of prostitutes did for him while Bernie stands by with the band-aids. The other interesting things about the card: Toyota's manager is writhing in agony and while the other team bosses appear to be watching the race, Toro Rosso's Gerhard Berger is watching... legs.
Anyone who's watched the trials and tribulations of Formula 1 over the last few years knows that Bernie Ecclestone usually keeps to himself. But if you provoke him, he'll always say exactly what he thinks -- and it's usually more than you'd hoped for. That appears to have happened yet again after Ferrari head Luca de Montezemolo told a group of journalists that he thought it might be time for Bernie to step down, give the F1 teams more money and stop holding races in far-flung places "just because they have a nice skyline."
More specifically, Montezemolo said "In terms of revenue, we want to know more about them. Theoretically, like in other professional sports, like basketball in the USA, we can have a league made by us and appoint a good league manager to run our own business. Because it is our own business." Ecclestone's reply essentially amounted to: "Shut up." He said that Ferrari's loyalty was bought during the breakaway threat of a couple years ago, when the teams threatened to leave F1 over a dispute with the new Concorde Agreement. Ferrari was the first one to break rank, and Ecclestone says that was done because Ferrari was promised about "$80 million more when they win the constructor's championship." As for revenues, Ecclestone said that Ferrari, like any other team, can check the books whenever it wants. And as for far-flung races, with CVC Capital Partners still in huge debt from buying into the series, the number-one goal now is to go where the money is. That probably means more races in Asia than Europe, and more nice skylines for the time being. As far as we're concerned, if it brings more passing, we're on board.
Citing the ridiculously spiraling costs associated with engine development, the FIA sent out a statement seeking drivetrain suppliers for every Formula 1 team starting in 2010, meaning that the same engine/trans combo would be fitted to every car on the grid. The company that gets the contract would either build and supply the engines or design and supervise the building of them so they meet a specified range. This kind of plan seems almost incomprehensible given that Formula One has always been known as a series that allows manufacturers and private teams to compete within the regulations to push the boundaries of what's possible in car development, and especially in engine technology. It seems unfathomable that a team like Honda might consider staying in F1 if they had to use a Renault powerplant, or God forbid a Toyota mill. McLaren-Mercedes/Ferrari anyone? Despite the obvious negative reaction to this announcement, F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone said he doesn't expect to lose any teams: "We're trying to get a level playing field," he said. "I don't see why [manufacturers] should leave, we're saving them an awful lot of money I hope." While increasing development costs have gotten out of hand and threatened the future of the sport by increasing the likelihood that all teams but those with the deepest pockets will be driven out, the overall feeling is that the FIA is using their usual tactic of offering a pretty unpleasant plan, with the hope that teams will accept their much more palatable alternative when that is offered. Still, there is some support within F1 for this type of plan, especially among the smaller teams that already rely on the major manufacturers to supply engines. A smaller budget means these teams are usually perpetual backmarkers, and with a spec drivetrain, they might be better equipped to grab more podiums. The FIA is set to meet with the Formula One Team's Association in Geneva after this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. We'll keep you posted.
Bernie Ecclestone has three daughters -- four if you count Formula 1 -- and the one you see above is Tamara, posing with a checkered flag. Why? To help PETA fight the fur trade, of course. Under the slogan "Going fur-free is the winning formula," Tamara has done a series of print ads in Europe that appear to say "If you really care about animals, not only will you not wear fur, you won't wear any clothes at all. And you'll be hot. Like Natasja Vermeer and Eva Mendes hot. Or Steve-O." Vive l'Europe.
While Formula One has been a relative constant for the past several decades, the various feeder series running up the ladder to the pinnacle of international motorsport seems to always be in flux. The FIA recently announced plans to revive the old Formula 2 series with a new low-cost format to compete with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's contemporary GP2 championship, but Bernie isn't about to let himself be dominated by Max Mosley without putting up a good fight.To that end, Ecclestone is now reported to be working on launching a new GP3 series. The new feeder series would sit one step below GP2, which itself has supplied a crop of new talent – including Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Timo Glock – to the F1 grid every year since its inception in 2005. GP3 would compete directly with the fractioned Formula 3 – under which separate series operate around the world without a single united championship – and swallow the International Formula Master's series established last year. While Mosley's discredited vision of a low-cost Formula 2 would cap annual budgets at 200,000 euros per car (compared to the 800,000 euro cost of the F3 Euroseries), GP3 could keep things down to the more realistic 450,000 euro budget required in the aforementioned IFM.
Bottom line: there's a war of racing series going on between Mosley and Ecclestone, and racing fans could stand to benefit from the competition.
Rumors have been circulating that CVC, the commercial rights holders to Formula One, have considered selling the series. But before that could happen, they would have to give Bernie Ecclestone the boot.
The reports were fueled by comments made by Max Mosley, the embattled president of the FIA, who related to reporters that conversations about the subject had taken place with executives at CVC. According to Mosley's conclusion, CVC would consider selling Formula One if a huge offer were made – possibly by an Arab consortium – but Ecclestone would need to be replaced because "the whole business depends on a man who is 78 years old". However, CVC issued a strong statement at this past weekend's race in Hungary that it had no immediate plans to sell F1 and was pleased with its performance as well as that of Bernie Ecclestone.
Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire brain behind the commercial side of Formula 1, has for the first time publicly called for Max Mosley's resignation. When the Mosley scandal broke, Ecclestone, who has known Mosley for 40 years, did not take a stand on Mosley's resignation. All Ecclestone would say is, "It doesn't look good, does it?"
On June 3, Mosley faces a vote of confidence among his colleagues at the FIA. Mosley said he would not resign, and as he appeared to weather the worst of it, he then turned to defending his position in a letter to constituent FIA clubs. But the letter didn't merely attempt to defend his position; it essentially claimed that Formula 1 is in a major crisis, and using the logic that you don't switch horses midstream, Max should be the one to finish righting the ship. It also asserted that the commercial rights holders -- Ecclestone and friends -- were basically trying to do away with the FIA.
That letter made Ecclestone question whether Mosley "wants a war with" him. Ecclestone put out a response letter saying that there was no crisis, he had nothing to say against the FIA, and he looked forward to the next Concorde Agreement governing F1. And now he's called for Max's resignation. Max is expected to survive tomorrow's vote, and if he does, there'll probably be at least one more person who isn't happy about it.
Despite Bernie Ecclestone's initial support of his colleague Max Mosley, Ecclestone is now publicly urging the embattled FIA president to cancel his planned trip to Bahrain to oversee the grand prix there this coming weekend.
The humiliation which Mosley apparently pursued in a disturbing sexual escapade involving multiple prostitutes in a sado-masochistic nazi-themed orgy was outdone only by the embarrassment which resulted from the public revelation of the episode in the British tabloids. Following the news breaking, Mosley declared he would proceed as normal as if nothing had happened, but Ecclestone says his colleague should think again. Citing public opinion and predicting that the royal family in Bahrain "wouldn't like it" if he came to their country, Bernie expressed concern that the news at the event would be dominated (pardon the expression) by Mosley's scandal instead of remaining focused on the race itself. Mosley's "business as usual" approach may require some further thought, to say the least.
As any racing fan Down Under will tell you, the Australian Grand Prix has a long and rich history. The event has been held annually since 1928, and has been a staple of the Formula One calendar since 1985, usually either kicking off or ending the season. History might not be worth as much as cold hard cash to Bernie Ecclestone, though, as the F1 manager is reportedly preparing to scrap the Melbourne event in favor of a new one in Russia.
This weekend Ecclestone was slated to meet with government officials in St. Petersburg to discuss building a new circuit there to host a Russian Grand Prix. But with the calendar already stretched thin, something's got to give, and Ecclestone has reportedly grown impatient with the Aussie event, whose organizers have been resistant to the idea of turning their event into a night race like Singapore's, prompting reports that Bernie won't renew Australia's contract beyond 2010. With the Indian Grand Prix set to debut in the same year, F1 could be dominated by events in Asia by the end of the decade.
