In the past 30 years, Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have sometimes publicly taken opposite sides with a hidden strategy of achieving a common objective. This time, however, the feeling among many paddock insiders is that the animosity between the pair is real.
It started with Mosley sending a letter to the FIA member club presidents saying he should remain as president of the FIA because F-1’s commercial rights holders [CHR] — Ecclestone and CVC — were trying to grab total control of the sport away from the FIA.
Some, including Ecclestone, believed that this was simply a tactic by Mosley to divert attention away from his sex scandal.
Ecclestone wrote a letter to the same club presidents giving his angle on the future of F-1, saying that “misunderstandings and inaccurate conclusions” could be drawn from Mosley’s letter.
“We support the FIA and recognize that it is, and should remain, the sole body governing international motorsports, which governs the sporting organization of the FIA Formula One World Championship,” Ecclestone said.
The CRH does not wish to have control over the F-1 regulations, Ecclestone said.
Regarding the agreement beginning in 2010 that leases F-1’s commercial rights to Ecclestone’s companies for the following 100 years, Ecclestone refuted Mosley’s allegations that the CHR wanted to renegotiate the deal to gain overall control of F-1.
“We have also raised with him a number of other issues which we considered would improve the agreements without damaging the FIA’s interests,” Ecclestone wrote, “but we accept that is a matter for the FIA to judge, it is not obliged to make those concessions to us and should it consider it is against its interests to do so.”
Ecclestone said that the CRH wants the Concorde Agreement, which expired at the end of 2007, to be renewed.
“Not as a way for the CRH to exercise control over the sport,” he said, “but because it will provide the financial and regulatory stability desired by the F-1 teams and the motor manufacturers who sponsor and invest significantly in them.”
Ecclestone also denied Mosley’s claims that F-1 is facing a financial crisis.
“On the contrary,” he said, “F-1 is in robust health; it enjoys the support of most of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers and is sponsored by many of the world’s other most prestigious brands.
Revenues continue to grow, television ratings are high and demand from countries to promote a new Grand Prix continues to exceed the number of places on the calendar.”
The cost of running a team has risen to an unsustainable level, Ecclestone acknowledged, but he added that this is being addressed with cost-cutting measures.
Ecclestone closed his letter by saying the CRH had “no reason to undermine the FIA or its president, on the contrary we believe a strong FIA led by a respected president is good for all key constituents of F-1.”
The question is, is Mosley still a respected president?
Here in Monaco, Mosley attended a Grand Prix for the first time this year. But he kept a low profile and declined to talk to the media.
He held private meetings with some team bosses and engineers, but attended no official functions. Most of the time he was behind the closed doors of his office.