OK. We’ve had our fun. Max Mosley, the man who, until a week and a half ago, was the undisputed ruler of the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, the top governing body of international motorsport, has proved that American politicians have no monopoly on stupidity when it comes to their private lives.
The son of the late Sir Oswald Mosley, the most visible British fascist in the 1930s, and who was interned by England’s government during the second World War for those views, Max Mosley seemingly had been able to put his family’s checkered past behind him as he rose to become boss of the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone’s handmaiden in running Formula One.
It was, however, a past that Mosely revived when he was videotaped at a sado-masochistic sex party that had Nazi overtones to it the weekend before last near his Knightsbridge London home.
Regardless of the whys and hows, the real issue isn’t so much Mosley, as it is the FIA and F-1, and where they go from here. As this is being written Mosley has sought to save his career, suggesting that he was the “victim” of an underhanded investigation, and that he has received support from within the FIA community.
Indeed, he has taken the position that whatever happened in that London apartment was in his words “a private matter.”
The problem is that some of the material coming from Mosley has been on FIA letterhead, blurring the issue of what is, and is not, private.
In a way, this is irrelevant, for it seems ever more clear that Mosley will have to step down. The question is where does the FIA go after he leaves? And that may be far more critical than the temporary focus on the scandal resulting from his actions.
In truth, for years the world governing body was run by an elite community, sometimes seemingly more interested in the social aspects of the sport than its business side.
That began to change when Frenchman Jean Marie Balestre took over at the end of the 1970s, ready to impose his will on the sport. His problem was that he wanted control of the FIA’s richest asset, Formula One, a position that put him in direct conflict with Ecclestone.
Although, the two eventually worked out their issues, it wasn’t until Mosley took over as FIA head that F-1 began to truly flourish. Now that his departure appears all but certain, there is the worry that there is no one with the same “presence” to replace him.
With Ecclestone approaching age 80, and in more than comfortable financial circumstances, and with Mosley out of the picture, the ship that is Formula One could not only be left “rudderless,” but without the kind of “Capitan” that it needs to continue to prosper.
Keeping in mind that the success of F-1 is contingent on the ongoing support of the major manufacturers currently involved in it, and keeping in mind that each of those manufacturers has its own agenda for spending its money in the sport, without the kind of strong personalities seen in Ecclestone, Mosley and Balestre, one has to wonder if anarchy could replace the current “enforced” order that has produced the prosperity now enjoyed by the Grand Prix community.
They say that one needs to be careful for what one wishes, lest it becomes true. Mosley appears to have committed a sin for which he will have to pay with his job.
Yet no one should be euphoric, for if a strong replacement, one who can balance all the competing needs of the various participants and interest in the sport, can’t be found, disaster could be the true “winner” to come from this sad episode.