Mosley on FOTA, Diffusers and Mosley 21/03/2009 Bernie Ecclestone does not enjoy being crossed. That is clear from his impassioned outburst over yesterday's scoring system debacle, as reported by F1 Fanatic. His arrogant and misleading statement is duly receiving the kicking it deserves in Keith's comment system and there would be little point in unpacking its vitriolic nonsense here.I'd rather look at a Toyota...Instead, I would suggest a read of Max Mosley's comments to The Daily Telegraph today. His reaction has obviously been added to an interview already planned for the newspaper and we have three separate articles to consider as a result. Since the scoring system is the most current talking point, we could go directly to Max's words of wisdom on that subject. It is, after all, a model of his usual use of irrelevancies to obscure the truth."Bernie told me that he talked to all the teams and everybody was happy," says Max, apparently unaware that his buddy is a notorious liar and has already been exposed as such on this very issue. When Ecclestone first made his suggestion of medals instead of points, he claimed that all the team owners were in agreement with him; the subsequent meeting of FOTA to discuss that and other issues revealed that none of the teams had been consulted and, indeed, they issued a counter suggestion for an adjustment to the points system, the same suggestion that the WMSC summarily rejected in favor of its own winner-takes-all idea.Max goes on to claim that "I was led to believe they all agreed. The World Council was under the impression that they had all agreed." And we are supposed to believe that this impression was formed while all the time FOTA's real opinion was lying on the table, rejected and disregarded. Come on, Max, I know you think we are stupid but is anyone really that stupid?In fact, it was Max who was being stupid if he truly believed that Bernie's assertion that the teams agreed was sufficient to meet the requirement of unanimous agreement of the teams. After hearing Max's intelligence lauded time and again, I am forced to the conclusion that none of the WMSC delegates noticed that what they were doing was against their own rules. In short, they made a mistake but Max is not going to admit it.Turning to the suspect diffuser issue, we find that Max has retreated from his earlier opinion that the Williams, Toyota and Brawn GP diffusers are legal. Both he and Charlie Whiting have indicated that their view was that the diffusers are within the letter of the law but now Max has this to say:"It's a very clever device and you can make a very good case for saying that it's legal and a very good case for saying that it's illegal."So Max does not have an opinion after all and he prefers to allow yet another complex mess to bring the sport into disrepute rather than get it sorted out now. And, contrary to what a lot of commentators have been saying, it is possible to give a ruling before the season begins and the protests received. Max says that "If there had been more time before the detailed objections to the system were sent in, I would probably have sent it to the FIA Court of Appeal before Australia." Strange that there was time to push through a radical change to the points system but not enough to issue a definitive ruling on the diffusers - we have been aware of the problem for weeks.But no, Max is washing his hands on this one; "...somebody has to make their mind up and fortunately it's not my job," he says. Never mind that part of his job is to ensure that controversial issues are dealt with quickly and in such a way that the sport is not ridiculed for its recurrent legal wrangles. A short statement from Charlie Whiting indicating the legality or otherwise of the diffusers would have been sufficient to deter protests in Melbourne and Max has the power to insist that Charlie make up his mind. His is the view that should hold most weight with the Court of Appeal anyway so it makes sense for him to give it now and let that be an end of the matter.And so we come to yet another article attempting to justify Max's personal habits. Once more, we are told of "his towering intellect" and then Max goes off on a long dissertation including several dubious assertions stated as fact. Most people are for him, he says, and gives the example of a taxi driver who once said to him, "It’s good what you have done to the News of the World".It amounts to Max claiming to have his finger on the pulse of public opinion and that most people are sympathetic to his cause. That would indicate that he needs to read a few more F1 blogs, since the overwhelming impression on the net is that F1 fans are fed up with his antics, both private and official.Max remains in his position, not because the majority of people wanted him to carry on as FIA President, but because he can only be ousted by a vote of no confidence from the FIA delegates - and it is no secret that he survived their vote through the support of representatives from the smaller motoring organizations who had vested interests in seeing him continue. When Max announces his decision to stand for election once again, they will see how much his promises mean. Some of the delegates must actually have thought he meant it when he said he would retire at the end of this term...But enough, I am tired of the whole subject. Max does not read me and he dismisses all criticism as stupid anyway; sometimes I feel as though I am bashing my head against the wall. And it's true what they say - it is such a relief when I stop.
Clive
Dave Spurr Once again I couldn't agree more.Max also seems to forget that it's so easy to have a ruling on issues like this even so late in the day as a couple of weeks before the start of the season. See the removal of the Williams skate fins only a couple days after their initial appearance on the car, the reason being they could "impede the marshals in case of an accident". There might well be a rule for that, but I doubt it is as clearly defined as the current regulations on the diffuser.All it takes is a firm yes or no - they could even take a leaf out of the stewards book and not even give a reason for their decision. That would save the sport from further embarrassment and, as I have posited here before in a comment, the teams from expense - as I doubt that all the teams (with or without the loophole-diffuser) haven't been looking at alternatives depending on the ruling.I understand that in testing you can run whatever you want (as McLaren reportedly did recently with a less than legal rear wing) but I don't believe that anyone using the loophole-diffuser is intending for it to be a testing-only spec. Date Added: 21/03/2009
Clive I think there can be no doubt that the loophole diffuser is intended for use in the races. There would have been no point in designing it otherwise. And, if the Brawn BGP 001 is as quick in Australia as it has been in testing, a protest from the likes of Briatore is inevitable. It is just sad that such a protest will not be thrown out immediately with the words, "Sorry, Charlie has already looked at that and says it's legal."Instead we will have a long drawn out saga of appeal and counter appeal and will not know the final result of the early races until well into the season. All of which could be avoided if Max were just to tell Charlie to decide one way or the other and then let his decision be final. Date Added: 21/03/2009
Don Speekingleesh My pet hamster is more of a "towering intellect" than Mosley.The man is a bullying, blustering liar, and that's the the only way he get's anywhere. Date Added: 21/03/2009
Clive Well, yes, Don, that is another way of putting it, yes... :D Date Added: 21/03/2009
Keith Collantine His "zeitgeist" remark was the funniest thing I've read since, well, FOTA's statement yesterday... Date Added: 21/03/2009
Clive But did he say it in a really bad, Peter Sellers, German accent? ;) Date Added: 21/03/2009
Alianora La Canta Charlie Whiting made his opinion clear two days ago - the diffusers use a regulatory loophole and are therefore legal. The trouble is that the fuss about the championship awarding system kicked off at the same time, which obscured the debate.Mr Mosley might like to keep up with the communications of his employees from time to time. It would save him a lot of needless worry. Date Added: 21/03/2009
Filipe About the diffusers, it would be a good moment for FOTA to show their unity and agree in just accept that the Williams/Toyota duo and Brawn find a good loophole and don't protest about it. Date Added: 22/03/2009
Clive Alianora: Charlie gave his opinion on the diffusers, stating that they use a loophole in the regulations and are legal. It was not an official statement, however, and leaves teams free to protest the diffusers in Melbourne - which is what we want to avoid. And anyway, Charlie's opinion is not important to the stewards' deliberations, judging by some of their decisions last year. Date Added: 22/03/2009
Clive Filipe: That would be the best solution, I agree, but I suspect that much will depend on how well the Brawn BGP 001 performs in Melbourne. If it is seriously quick, you can reckon on a protest from Flavio Briatore at the very least. FOTA's unity does not extend to competition on the track, unfortunately. Date Added: 22/03/2009
Arun Srini Clive, enough of articles about those power- politicians. Its bugging me to read articles of ppl who we know are not in correct state of mind doing such huge dents to the sport. We read about them everywhere, and so I request you not to detail about them anymore in this esteemed blog. You can please write about awesome stuff in formula 1 in the past, your favourite overtakings, why you love them. also why bankings were removed and slower boring corners (how my heart sinks everytime i watch the movie grand prix), why not many overtakings (lewis settling for 5th place, while we saw two or three awesome overtaking from Nick, including double overtaking alonso), and are we doing too much damage to actual racing in the name of driver safety with regard to boring circuits (next in line the versailles) ? I have loads of stuff I love to learn. Maybe I should move to england and catch you all in pubs often and learn stuff...(Believe me, if i was this fanatic of f1 when i wasn't engaged to be married, I'd have done it)... We are sick of the politics in f1, and all other stuff in the world. Please talk about the real DNA, the racing the engineering, the drivers more , now that we are going into aus gp. Your fav aus gp, fav incident, deadly crashes... etc. etc Date Added: 22/03/2009
Clive I feel your pain, Arun. However, as much as I dislike having to dissect what the dictators of F1 have to say, I feel it is necessary since it has direct relevance to the future of the sport. If we don't speak out and point out where they are going wrong, they will get away with so much more!Also, I have to write about what grabs me on the day and, very often, that will be items in the news that have annoyed or delighted me. Most mornings I have no idea what I am going to write about when I sit down at the computer and I like the unpredictable and dangerous nature of doing things that way - it keeps me on my toes!So there will be political posts when there are political things going on. But be encouraged - the season approaches and soon there will be all sorts of things to discuss, with Max and Bernie rarely getting a look in. On Friday we have practice in Melbourne, with qualifying and the Australian GP over the weekend, and there are bound to be interesting and exciting things happening.Personally, I can hardly wait to see how well the Brawn BGP 001 does - this is the first time in ages that a new team has seemed so competitive right from the start and it looks as though we are going to have a major shake-up in the prevailing order. It is shaping up to be a season to remember and there will be little time for political in-fighting, I hope. Date Added: 22/03/2009
Arun Srini I got your point Clive, just was watching the movie 'Grand Prix' for some 20th time and hence my comment. Greetings. Date Added: 22/03/2009
Lee Unfortunately the diffuser situation has now been allowed to get to the point where no matter what the decision it will be unfair. If the stewards rule that it is indeed legal then it is unfair on the teams that could have redesigned their diffusers to get some extra speed and if it is ruled as illegal it will be unfair on the teams running the design as they could have redesigned them for melbourne. This is something that could and should have been sorted out weeks ago!I have come to the conclusion that Max is actually very thick and stupid. Date Added: 23/03/2009
Clive Agreed, Lee. With your entire comment! Date Added: 23/03/2009
insurance lead sales Hey. You should not live one way in private, another in public.I am from Leone and now study English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "We offer real time insurance leads as well as cherry pick insurance leads."With best wishes :p, insurance lead sales. Date Added: 18/08/2009
RSS comments feed
Back to the main blog
You may use some HTML in comments. For bold text use <strong></strong> and for italic text use <em></em>. If you know what you're doing feel free to use more complex mark-up but please no deprecated tags, break tags or JavaScript.
Enter the code shown above: Name * Comment * Email * URL
