Christmas approaches and the F1 news machine goes into hibernation mode; all around me the bloggers are packing up and disappearing for the duration, while I wander through the news sites, marvelling at the obscure and tenuously F1-related stories that fill the empty period. Red Bull has a video made to announce its RB4 announcement date and that becomes the lead item on several sites. It's a nice video, I grant you, but...
Red Bull team HQ
But wait a minute, what's this? PitPass highlights yet another interview with Max Mosley, this time conducted by The Guardian. And it's a doozey too, full of self congratulation and half-truths. Dare I do yet another Mosley bash? My readers must be heartily sick of the guy by now.
But, what the heck, nobody's reading at this stage, they're all drawn into the last minute preparations for the great celebration. Let's take it that this is my Christmas present and pick the thing to pieces. It seems that Max is relieved that Kimi won the championship in the end.
"Relieved because, if it had been either of the McLaren drivers, there would always have been a question mark," he told Richard Williams. "I'm not sure how big a question mark but it would have been there. And that puts you in an incredibly difficult position. I think we've been very lucky."
It puts me in a difficult position? Oh, I don't think so, Max - it's you who would have a problem with it. I know that, even if everything you say about McLaren is true, there was not enough time for the team to put anything they learned on the cars. The drivers earned their points without any influence from whatever was going on at home base.
Like Mario Andretti, Max thinks that the spy saga was actually good for F1, raising interest amongst the general public as it did. That the public would not have understood the details and would have seen only another sordid episode in the long list of F1 legal disputes does not seem to matter. Never mind the number of genuine F1 fans being turned off the whole thing through the politics, let's count the viewing figures of those who come only for the dirt.
In fact, the only one to have benefited from it all is Max himself, his profile having been raised to the point where he becomes a household name. Hence the sudden rash of Mosley interviews in the media. Max is obviously enjoying it and, since he equates himself with F1, sees it as a great boost for the sport.
And it seems Max has learned nothing from the last couple of months. "Dear old Jackie" comes in for more insults, being accused of talking too much and being childish. Is it any wonder that the entire F1 world is hoping that Jackie presses on with his libel suit? But Max wouldn't know about that - he never listens.
Then we come to Max's delight in new technologies and directions for the sport. This from the man who pushed through the ten year engine freeze. I have said enough about that particular item on his agenda and will move on quickly.
And it's back to the spy saga, this time his dodgy justification for allowing Renault to escape scot free after his draconian punishment of McLaren. Anyone who has read the transcript can only be amazed at the similarities in the two cases but Max maintains that they were completely different. Why? It's all in coming clean, apparently. He repeats the lie that Renault supplied everything immediately, whereas even the judgement itself mentions that they began by denying that the information infiltrated the company. This is followed by the usual statement that McLaren lied in the beginning - ignoring the possibility that Ron Dennis may well have believed what he was saying at the time.
We know that Max thinks Ron is a liar and does not believe he knew nothing of the Coughlan information reaching into his company; but that is his opinion and not necessarily true. Any argument constructed on that basis must be suspect, therefore. This is what concerns Max, however - apparently any "hard-nosed lawyer or policeman" would not believe Ron either.
It may come as news to Max, but it does not matter what he or anyone else thinks about Ron's veracity. All that matters is the truth and, if you can't prove that he knew about the info, you have no right to base a legal argument on the supposition that he did.
But it's the same old ground, isn't it? Since Max doesn't listen, he will continue to spout his warped view of things and I will get annoyed enough to comment, probably until both of us have departed for that great street circuit in the sky (it's a cross between Monaco and Macau, I'm sure). And F1 will plod on into an uncertain future, hopefully not damaged too much by Max's determination to ruin it.
Amusing to think that, with a bit of luck, there are a couple of legal cases coming up that might see "dear old Max" put out to grass. Go get him, Jackie, and don't back down, Martin!
Red Bull team HQ
But wait a minute, what's this? PitPass highlights yet another interview with Max Mosley, this time conducted by The Guardian. And it's a doozey too, full of self congratulation and half-truths. Dare I do yet another Mosley bash? My readers must be heartily sick of the guy by now.
But, what the heck, nobody's reading at this stage, they're all drawn into the last minute preparations for the great celebration. Let's take it that this is my Christmas present and pick the thing to pieces. It seems that Max is relieved that Kimi won the championship in the end.
"Relieved because, if it had been either of the McLaren drivers, there would always have been a question mark," he told Richard Williams. "I'm not sure how big a question mark but it would have been there. And that puts you in an incredibly difficult position. I think we've been very lucky."
It puts me in a difficult position? Oh, I don't think so, Max - it's you who would have a problem with it. I know that, even if everything you say about McLaren is true, there was not enough time for the team to put anything they learned on the cars. The drivers earned their points without any influence from whatever was going on at home base.
Like Mario Andretti, Max thinks that the spy saga was actually good for F1, raising interest amongst the general public as it did. That the public would not have understood the details and would have seen only another sordid episode in the long list of F1 legal disputes does not seem to matter. Never mind the number of genuine F1 fans being turned off the whole thing through the politics, let's count the viewing figures of those who come only for the dirt.
In fact, the only one to have benefited from it all is Max himself, his profile having been raised to the point where he becomes a household name. Hence the sudden rash of Mosley interviews in the media. Max is obviously enjoying it and, since he equates himself with F1, sees it as a great boost for the sport.
And it seems Max has learned nothing from the last couple of months. "Dear old Jackie" comes in for more insults, being accused of talking too much and being childish. Is it any wonder that the entire F1 world is hoping that Jackie presses on with his libel suit? But Max wouldn't know about that - he never listens.
Then we come to Max's delight in new technologies and directions for the sport. This from the man who pushed through the ten year engine freeze. I have said enough about that particular item on his agenda and will move on quickly.
And it's back to the spy saga, this time his dodgy justification for allowing Renault to escape scot free after his draconian punishment of McLaren. Anyone who has read the transcript can only be amazed at the similarities in the two cases but Max maintains that they were completely different. Why? It's all in coming clean, apparently. He repeats the lie that Renault supplied everything immediately, whereas even the judgement itself mentions that they began by denying that the information infiltrated the company. This is followed by the usual statement that McLaren lied in the beginning - ignoring the possibility that Ron Dennis may well have believed what he was saying at the time.
We know that Max thinks Ron is a liar and does not believe he knew nothing of the Coughlan information reaching into his company; but that is his opinion and not necessarily true. Any argument constructed on that basis must be suspect, therefore. This is what concerns Max, however - apparently any "hard-nosed lawyer or policeman" would not believe Ron either.
It may come as news to Max, but it does not matter what he or anyone else thinks about Ron's veracity. All that matters is the truth and, if you can't prove that he knew about the info, you have no right to base a legal argument on the supposition that he did.
But it's the same old ground, isn't it? Since Max doesn't listen, he will continue to spout his warped view of things and I will get annoyed enough to comment, probably until both of us have departed for that great street circuit in the sky (it's a cross between Monaco and Macau, I'm sure). And F1 will plod on into an uncertain future, hopefully not damaged too much by Max's determination to ruin it.
Amusing to think that, with a bit of luck, there are a couple of legal cases coming up that might see "dear old Max" put out to grass. Go get him, Jackie, and don't back down, Martin!