Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone fears Max Mosley may become a ‘lame-duck’ president of the FIA if he continues to face growing opposition to his leadership.
Mosley may have yesterday won a vote of confidence to continue in his present role until his mandate concludes in October 2009, but at what cost to the organisation he governs?
Somewhat significantly, Ecclestone reflected: “I hope it (the decision) hasn’t destabilised sponsors or manufacturers.”
Ecclestone confirmed that in the run-up to the vote he had come under mounting pressure from outside influences to force Mosley to resign.
Those influences are likely to have been manufacturers and sponsors who had previously grown fearful of the damaging impact the Mosley scandal was having on the sport.
Despite that, Mosley stood firm and will now feel vindicated, but as Ecclestone added: “We are now in a position where nobody quite knows what will happen.
“All those who said things in the past, I don’t imagine they are going to change their opinion now. They won’t feel differently to the way they felt before.
“So it’s going to be difficult for him to act as president of the FIA if the people who said before they don’t want to meet with him maintain that position.”
American Automobile Association president Robert Darbelnet did not rule out the possibility of forming a separate body to guard the interests of motorists worldwide.
“We don’t think this type of behavior is appropriate for an organization that represents hundreds of million of motorists,” Darbelnet said. “I can’t think of an organization that would arrive at a result that was arrived at here today.”
The FIA said Mosley would not comment until his lawsuit against British tabloid News of the World was settled. Dutch federation member Guido van Woerkom said Mosley had promised to avoid the public spotlight in the future.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was “happy” with the results of the vote.
“The one thing I didn’t want to happen, the last thing I wanted, was for Max to go today,” Ecclestone said. “Up until now, I’ve asked him a million times to stand down at the end of November. But today he got what he wanted. He is still there and that’s it.”
Van Woerkom said most of Mosley’s support came from smaller clubs — which held equal sway in terms of voting power to the national federations — because of the money they received after FIA last year gave Formula One team McLaren a $100-million fine for possessing sensitive documents belonging to rival Ferrari. The FIA and its members received $60 million of that sum.
“(It is) difficult to say, but there is a lot of money going around, and if you get a small piece of that bread it can be very nice to eat,” Van Woerkom said. “Corrupt is not the way (to say it). But when you look at the McLaren fine, that is a lot of money, and when you get something from that, you are more or less in favor of the people giving you that bread.”
“ADAC will stay with its decision as long as Max Mosley holds the top FIA office of president,” it said in a statement.
Gueorgui Yanakiev, president of Bulgaria’s motoring federation, said the assembly had made the right decision.
“We voted for a very successful president that made this organization a very respected body,” Yanakiev said through a translator. “We think it is good for FIA if Max finishes his mandate.”
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