Max Mosley

Max Mosley
Born	(1940-04-13) 13 April 1940 London, England
Nationality	British
Title	President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Predecessor	Jean-Marie Balestre
Parent(s)	Sir Oswald Mosley (deceased) and Diana, Lady Mosley (deceased)

Max Rufus Mosley (born 13 April 1940) is president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide. The FIA is also the governing body for Formula One and other international motorsports.

Mosley is a former barrister and amateur racing driver, and a founder and co-owner of March Engineering, a successful racing car constructor and Formula One racing team. He looked after legal and commercial issues for the company between 1969 and 1977. In the late 1970s, Mosley became the official legal adviser to the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), the body which represents the Formula One teams. In this role he drew up the first version of the Concorde Agreement, which settled a dispute between FOCA and the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), the governing body of Formula One. Mosley was elected president of FISA in 1991 and became president of the FIA, FISA's parent body, in 1993. Mosley has identified his major achievement as FIA President as being the promotion of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP or Encap), a European car safety performance assessment programme. He has also promoted increased safety and the use of green technologies in motor racing. In 2008, Mosley retained his position after stories about his sex life appeared in the British press.

Mosley is the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, former leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and Diana Mitford. He was educated in France, Germany and Britain before going on to attend university at Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated with a degree in physics. In his teens and early twenties Mosley was involved with his father's post-war party, the Union Movement (UM). He has said that the association of his surname with fascism stopped him from developing his interest in politics further, although he briefly worked for the Conservative Party in the early 1980s.

Family and early life

Mosley is the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, who had been a Labour minister, and a Member of Parliament for both the Conservative and Labour parties in the 1920s. By the 1930s, Sir Oswald had left mainstream politics and become the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Mosley's mother was Sir Oswald's second wife, Diana Mitford. Early in the Second World War, on 23 May 1940, Sir Oswald, who had campaigned for a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany, was interned under Defence Regulation 18B, along with most active fascists in Britain. On 29 June 1940, Lady Mosley was also imprisoned, 11 weeks after giving birth to Max Mosley. As a result, Mosley and his older brother, Alexander, were separated from their parents for the first few years of their lives. In December 1940, then prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, who knew Lady Mosley socially, asked Home Secretary Herbert Morrison to ensure that Lady Mosley was able to see Max regularly.

Sir Oswald and Lady Mosley were released from detention at HMP Holloway on 16 November, 1943, provoking widespread public protests. Their children were refused entry to several schools, due to a combination of their wildness and their parents' reputation, and were initially tutored at home. In 1950, the Mosleys bought houses in the Republic of Ireland, and in Orsay, near Paris. The family spent the year moving around Europe, spending the spring in France and the autumn and winter in Ireland, where Mosley was keen on hunting. His aunt Nancy Mitford, in letters to Evelyn Waugh, recalled Sir Oswald and his family cruising the Mediterranean on the family yacht. On one such trip they visited Spain and were entertained by Sir Oswald's friend, General Franco.

Initially Mosley was educated in France, then at the age of 13 he was sent to Stein an der Traun in Germany for two years, where he learned to speak fluent German. On his return to England he was educated at Millfield boarding school. He attended Christ Church at Oxford University, graduating with a degree in physics in 1961. During his time there he was Secretary of the Oxford Union. In 1961, Mosley campaigned under the slogan "Free speech for fascists." when his father's invitation to speak at the Union was opposed. Shortly afterwards, Mosley introduced his father to Robert Skidelsky, one of Mosley's contemporaries at the university, who later wrote Sir Oswald's biography. Mosley went on to study law at Gray's Inn in London, specialising in patent and trademark law, and qualified as a barrister in 1964. Northumbria University awarded Mosley a Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law in 2005. During the early 1960s, Mosley was also a member of the Territorial Army, training as a parachutist.

Mosley, like many of Formula One's drivers, lives in Monaco. He met his future wife, Jean Taylor, at a Union Movement party; they were married in 1960. They have two children: Alexander, who was born in 1970, and Patrick, who was born in 1972. In addition to his brother, Mosley has five older half-siblings. On his father's side they are Vivien Mosley, the novelist Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale and Michael Mosley. On his mother's side they are the Irish preservationist, Desmond Guinness, and the writer, Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne. Also on his mother's side is his aunt, the former Deborah Mitford, now the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.

Politics

From their teens to early twenties, Mosley and his brother, Alexander, were involved with their father's post-war party, the Union Movement (UM), which advocated a united Europe as its core issue. Trevor Grundy, a central figure in the UM's Youth Movement, writes of the 16-year-old Mosley painting the flash and circle symbol on walls in London on the night of the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary (4 November, 1956). The flash and circle was used by both the UM and the pre-war BUF. He also says that Mosley organised a couple of large parties as a way "to get in with lively, ordinary, normal young people, girls as well as boys, and attract them to the Movement by showing that we were like them and didn't go on about Hitler and Mussolini, Franco and British Fascism all the time." When Sir Oswald ran for the Kensington North seat in the 1959 General Election, Mosley and Alexander canvassed for their father.

Mosley was later an election agent for the Union Movement, supporting Walter Hesketh as parliamentary candidate for Moss Side in 1962. The motor racing journalist Alan Henry describes the younger Mosley as one of his father's "right-hand men" at the time of a violent incident in 1962 in which Sir Oswald was knocked down by a mob in London and saved from serious injury by his son's intervention. As a result of his involvement in this fracas, Mosley was arrested and charged with threatening behaviour. He was later cleared at Old Street Magistrates' Court on the grounds that he was trying to protect his father. In 1964, Mosley himself was a prospective UM candidate.

In the early 1980s, Mosley attempted a political career, working for the UK Conservative Party and hoping to become a parliamentary candidate. Lovell writes that he gave up this aspiration after being unimpressed by "the calibre of senior party officials". He also felt his name would be a handicap and has since said that "If I had a completely open choice in my life, I would have chosen party politics, but because of my name, that's impossible."

Racing career

While Mosley was at University, his wife was given tickets to a motor race at the Silverstone circuit. The circuit was not far from Oxford, and the couple went out of curiosity. Mosley was attracted by the sport, and when his career as a barrister was bringing in sufficient money, he started racing cars himself. The sport's indifference to his background appealed to Mosley:

There was always a certain amount of trouble [being the son of Sir Oswald] until I came into motor racing. And in one of the first races I ever took part in there was a list of people when they put the practice times [...] and I heard somebody say, 'Mosley, Max Mosley, he must be some relation of Alf Mosley, the coachbuilder.' And I thought to myself, 'I've found a world where they don't know about Oswald Mosley.' And it has always been a bit like that in motor racing: nobody gives a darn.

At national level in the UK, Mosley was moderately successful, competing in over 40 races in 1966 and 1967, of which he won 12, and setting several class lap records. In 1968, he formed the London Racing Team in partnership with driver Chris Lambert to compete in European Formula Two, the level of racing just below Formula One. It was a dangerous time to race. Early in the year, Mosley competed in the Formula Two race at Hockenheim in which double world champion Jim Clark was killed, and within two years both of Mosley's 1968 team mates were dead in racing accidents. Mosley's best result that year was an eighth place at a non-championship race at Monza.

March Engineering

Main article: March Engineering

"Everything we'd set out to do, we'd done, and there were two of our cars sitting on the front [...] and you could feel the annoyance, the hatred almost, of some of the Grand Prix establishment because we'd pulled it off. It was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life." Mosley, recalling March's first F1 race, the 1970 South African Grand Prix

Lawrence (1989) p.30

Mosley's legal skills were frequently called on at March: one example was a contract dispute with Frank Costin, designer of the novel aerodynamics of the March 711 seen here.

In 1969, after two large accidents due to breakages on his Lotus car, Mosley retired from driving, having decided that "it was evident that I wasn't going to be World Champion." He was already working with Robin Herd, Alan Rees and Graham Coaker on setting up March Engineering, a racing car manufacturer. The name March is an acronym based on the initials of the founders; the 'M' stands for Mosley. Like the other founders, Mosley put in £2,500. His role in the new company was to handle legal and commercial matters. His father told him that the company "would certainly go bankrupt, but it would be good experience for a later career."

Mosley played a key role in publicising the new outfit. Although March had few resources and limited experience, the firm announced ambitious plans to enter Formula One, the pinnacle of single-seater racing, in 1970. The team had initially intended to enter a single car, but by the beginning of the season (partly due to deals made by Mosley), the number of March cars entered for their first Formula One race had risen to five. Two of these were run by March's own in-house works team and the rest by customer teams. Mosley also negotiated sponsorship from tyre maker Firestone and oil additive manufacturer STP.

The new operation was initially successful. In Formula One, March cars won three of their first four races, including a world championship race, the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix, won by reigning world champion Jackie Stewart in a customer car run by Tyrrell Racing. As a result, March finished third in the 1970 Constructors' Championship. The factory also sold 40 cars to customers in various lower formulae. Despite these successes, the organisation got into financial difficulty almost immediately. The Formula One operation was costing more than the customer car business was making. The March works team's contract with its lead driver, Chris Amon, was expensive, and Mosley, in his own words, "tried at every opportunity to get rid of him". He reasoned that Stewart's highly competitive customer car was enough to show March in a good light. Amon stayed to the end of the year, but Mosley succeeded in "restructuring" his contract, saving the company some much-needed money. At the end of the season, Mosley successfully demanded full control of the finances, including the factory run by Coaker, who left shortly afterwards. Mosley and Herd borrowed £20,000 from relatives and friends to support the company into its second year. According to Bernie Ecclestone's biographer, Terry Lovell, the money came from Mosley's half- brother, Jonathan Guinness.

Tyrrell started making its own cars towards the end of 1970, and March's 1971 program in Formula One was much reduced, with no recognised front-running driver. The Firestone and STP sponsorship was insufficient and Mosley failed to attract a large backer for 1971. Motorsport author Mike Lawrence has suggested that the shortfall forced him into short-term deals, which maintained cashflow, but were not in the best long-term interests of the company. Mosley negotiated a deal for the team to use Alfa Romeo engines in a third car, bringing much needed funding. The engines proved uncompetitive, and his hopes of an ongoing partnership with the Italian automobile manufacturer were not met. Nonetheless, March again finished third in the constructors championship, and works driver Ronnie Peterson, in a Cosworth DFV-powered car, was second in the drivers' World Championship. March's financial woes continued: the company had lost £71,000 at the end of 1971. Mosley and Rees disagreed over how to rectify the situation and Rees left March early in 1972.

Mosley pushed for the unusual six-wheeled March 2-4-0 to be built as a publicity device. Sales of models of the car are said to make it the most profitable car the company ever made.

March was more successful in selling large numbers of customer cars in the lower formulae. Mosley organised extensive test sessions for the 1971 cars for journalists and drivers, and arranged a successful scheme for drivers to rent cars and engines for the season, rather than buying them outright. Losing money on a deal to supply Jochen Neerpasch, then motorsport manager at Ford, with a Formula Two car paid off, when Neerpasch moved to BMW and offered March an exclusive deal in 1972 to use BMW's Formula Two engine. March cars powered by BMW engines won five of the next 11 European Formula Two championships. BMW put pressure on March to concentrate on their Formula Two programme. As a result, Herd spent less time with the Formula One team, where Mosley also started to act as a race engineer.

Although March considered quitting Formula One on several occasions, money was always found to support at least one car. In 1976, Mosley, having seen the popularity with fans of Tyrrell's six-wheeled P34, pressed for a six-wheeled March to be built as a draw for sponsors. The resulting March 2-4-0 never competed in Formula One, but generated the required publicity and a Scalextric slotcar model was profitable. Mosley spent much of his time negotiating deals for drivers with sponsorship and was also successful in selling Marches to other Formula One teams, such as Williams and Penske. The cars were rarely frontrunners, although the works team won a single race in both 1975 and 1976. By the end of 1977, Mosley was fed up with the struggle to compete in Formula One with no resources and left to work for FOCA full time, selling his shares in the company to Herd but remaining as a director. March's involvement in Formula One ended the same year.

Formula One Constructors Association

Main article: Formula One Constructors Association

From 1969, Mosley was invited to the meetings of the Grand Prix Constructors' Association (GPCA) as a representative of March. The GPCA was the forerunner of Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) and negotiated joint deals on behalf of its member teams. Although the brash new constructor was not popular with the established teams, Mosley has said that "when they went along to meetings to discuss things such as prize money, they felt they ought to take me along because I was a lawyer".

Mosley was unimpressed with the standard of negotiations. In 1971, British businessman Bernie Ecclestone bought the Brabham team, and Mosley recalls that:

Within about 20 minutes of him turning up at the [GPCA] meeting, it was apparent that here was someone who knew how many beans made five and after about half an hour he moved round the table to sit next to me, and from then on he and I started operating as a team. Within a very short time, the two of us were doing everything for the GPCA, instead of everyone moving around in a block, and from that developed FOCA.

The FOCA was created in 1974 by Ecclestone, Colin Chapman, Teddy Mayer, Max Mosley, Ken Tyrrell and Frank Williams to represent the commercial interests of the teams at meetings with the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), motorsport's world governing body. After leaving March at the end of 1977, Mosley officially became legal advisor to FOCA, which was led by Ecclestone. In his biography of Ecclestone, Terry Lovell suggests that he appointed Mosley to this role not only because of his legal ability, but also because he "saw in Mosley the necessary diplomatic and political skills that made him perfectly suited to the establishment of the FIA". The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) was FISA's parent body, representing car users worldwide. In the same year, Mosley was nominated for a role at the FIA Bureau Internationale de Constructeurs d'Automobile, a forerunner of the FIA Manufacturer's Commission. His nomination was blocked by French, Italian and German manufacturers.

In the early 1980s, Mosley was heavily involved in the conflict between FOCA and FISA for control of the sport. He represented FOCA at several meetings over this period. In 1981, FOCA announced its own World Federation of Motor Sport and ran the non-championship 1981 South African Grand Prix. The staging of this event, with worldwide television coverage, helped persuade Balestre that FISA would have to negotiate a settlement with FOCA. As Mosley has commented since: "We were absolutely skint. If Balestre could have held the manufacturer's support for a little bit longer, the constructors would have been on their knees. The outcome would then have been very different." Mosley helped resolve this debate by drawing up the Concorde Agreement. The first (1981) version settled the dispute between the independent teams which were primarily UK based, the so-called grandee constructors (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Renault) and the FIA. Essentially it gave FISA control of the rules and FOCA control of promotion and television rights. The most recent version of the Concorde Agreement expired on 31 December 2007, and a new one is under active discussion. In 1982, the year after the first Concorde Agreement was signed, Mosley left his role at FOCA, and Formula One, to work for the Conservative Party.

FISA presidency

Main article: Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile

Mosley returned to motorsport in 1986 to become president of the FISA Manufacturers' Commission and establish Simtek Research, a racing technical consultancy firm, with Nick Wirth, a former March employee. He sold his share of Simtek in 1991, when elected president of the FISA.

In 1991, Mosley challenged the incumbent Jean-Marie Balestre for the presidency of FISA. Mosley said that his decision to challenge the Frenchman was prompted by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna's disqualification from the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix after a collision with his team mate Alain Prost: "What happened to Ayrton Senna two years ago in Japan, disgusted me, [...] That is when I realised that Fisa [sic] was not a fair organisation." Balestre was widely reported at the time to have intervened on behalf of his countryman Prost to ensure that the race stewards disqualified Senna from the race, although Lovell writes that he did not. Mosley campaigned on the basis that Balestre, who was also president of the FIA and of the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile, could not effectively manage all these roles together. Mosley won by 43 votes to 29. He resigned a year later, fulfilling a promise made during his election campaign to seek a re-affirmation of his mandate. "I wanted to show people that I do what I say", he said. "Now they can judge me in a year's time." FISA immediately re-elected him for a four-year term. Balestre remained as FIA president until 1993, when a restructuring of the FIA led to the demise of FISA.

FIA presidency

Three-times WTCC Champion Andy Priaulx wearing the HANS device now mandated in FIA championships

Main article: Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

In 1993 Mosley was elected president of the FIA, replacing Balestre. The FISA was then merged into the FIA as its sporting arm. Mosley was elected to his second term as president of the FIA in October 1997, his third in 2001 and fourth in 2005. The FIA currently regulates not only the Formula One World Championship, the World Rally Championship, and the FIA GT Championship but also international motorsport generally, all of which appear on the FIA International Calendar.

Driver safety

After the deaths of drivers Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, worldwide media attention focused on the charismatic triple-world champion Senna, rather than Ratzenberger, a virtual unknown driving for the minor Simtek team. Mosley attended the funeral of Ratzenberger. In a press conference 10 years later Mosley said, "I went to his funeral because everyone went to Senna's. I thought it was important that somebody went to his." As a result of these deaths and other serious accidents in the mid-1990s, Mosley and the FIA brought in wide ranging changes to Formula One designed to make it a safer sport. These have included reducing the capacity and power of engines, the use of grooved tyres to reduce cornering speeds, the introduction of the HANS device to protect drivers' necks in accidents, circuit re-design and greatly increased requirements for crash testing of chassis.

Environmental issues

Mosley has said that he wants Formula One to start developing green technology. Continuing a theme of his presidency he has called for Formula One manufacturers to develop technology relevant to road cars. In recent years, a large proportion of the enormous budget of Formula One has been spent on the development of very powerful, very high-revving engines, which some say have little applicability to road cars. Mosley has announced a 10-year freeze on the development of engines, which would allow manufacturers to spend more of their budgets on environmentally friendly technology such as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS).

In July 2008, Mosley sent a letter to the Formula One teams, in which he called for the teams to propose future sporting regulations to address specific issues. Among these issues is reduced fuel consumption. The targeted reductions would be twenty percent for the 2011 season, increasing to fifty percenty by 2015.

Tobacco advertising

From the late 1960s to the early 2000s, F1 teams were heavily dependent on funding from cigarette companies like Rothmans. Mosley was partly successful in delaying European legislation to outlaw the practice.

In 1997, Mosley was involved in delaying European legislation banning tobacco advertising. The British Labour party had pledged to ban tobacco advertising in its manifesto ahead of its 1997 General Election victory, supporting a proposed European Union Directive banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship. At this time all leading Formula One Teams carried significant branding from tobacco brands such as Rothmans, West, Marlboro and Mild Seven. The Labour Party's stance on banning tobacco advertising was reinforced following the election by forceful statements from the Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Minister for Public Health Tessa Jowell. Ecclestone appealed "over Jowell's head" to Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff, who arranged a meeting with Blair. Ecclestone and Mosley, both Labour Party donors, met Blair on 16 October 1997. Mosley argued that the proposed legislation was illegal by EU rules, that Formula One needed more time to find alternative sources of funding and that the prompt introduction of a ban would lead to races being held outside Europe, while the coverage, including tobacco logos, would still be broadcast into the EU. He also argued that:

Motor racing was a world class industry which put Britain at the hi-tech edge. Deprived of tobacco money, Formula One would move abroad at the loss of 50,000 jobs, 150,000 part-time jobs and £900 million of exports.

On 4 November the "fiercely anti-tobacco Jowell" argued in Brussels for an exemption for Formula One. Media attention initially focused on Labour bending its principles for a "glamour sport" and on the "false trail" of Jowell's husband's links to the Benetton Formula One team. On 6 November correspondents from three newspapers inquired whether Labour had received any donations from Ecclestone; he had donated £1 million in January 1997. On 11 November Labour promised to return the money on the advice of Sir Patrick Neill. On 17 November Blair apologised for his government's mishandling of the affair and stated "the decision to exempt Formula One from tobacco sponsorship was taken two weeks later. It was in response to fears that Britain might lose the industry overseas to Asian countries who were bidding for it."

The revised directive went into force on in June 1998, and banned sponsorship from 2003, with a further three year extension for "global sports such as Formula One". On 5 October 2000, the directive was successfully overturned in the European Court of Justice on the grounds that it was unlawful. A new Tobacco Advertising Directive took effect in July 2005; The Financial Times described Mosley as "furious" that this was a year earlier than provided for under the 1998 directive.

Road safety

Asked in a 2003 interview about his most enduring achievement as president of the FIA, Mosley replied: "I think using Formula One to push Encap Crash-Testing." The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP or Encap) is a European car safety performance assessment programme that originated with work done by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK Department for Transport. The FIA became involved in the programme in 1996, taking a lead in promoting it, and Mosley chaired the initiative from its launch as Euro NCAP in 1997 to 2004. Despite what NCAP describes as a "strong negative response" from car manufacturers, the initiative has expanded, and NCAP reports a clear increase in the safety of modern cars as a result.

At the Euro NCAP 10th Anniversary Conference in November 2005, Mosley suggested that "the moment has come where the emphasis really has to move from the improvement of the performance of the car in a crash, to the avoidance of the crash entirely." He added that this can be achieved by much wider use of 'eSafety' technologies such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC). He has continued to promote the matter through his membership of initiatives such as CARS 21, the European Commission’s policy group aimed at improving the worldwide competitiveness of the European automotive industry.

In recognition of his contribution to road safety and motorsport Mosley was made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur in 2006. The Legion d'Honneur (Legion of Honour) is France's highest decoration for outstanding achievements in military or civil life, a Chevalier (Knight) is the fifth class.

Retirement plans

In June 2004, Mosley announced that he would step down from his position in October of that year. However, in July 2004 he rescinded his decision after the FIA Senate called for him to stay on. His current term expires in October 2009 although there was speculation that he would step down before then. According to a BBC Sport profile, many insiders considered that the announcement, and Mosley's public disagreements with Ecclestone, were "just part of a well crafted plan to strengthen their control over the sport", while Ron Dennis suggested that it arose because Mosley's proposals for Formula One met opposition.

At the start of 2008, Mosley said that he wanted to see through reforms such as budget capping and new technologies like KERS successfully introduced into Formula One before retiring. He has been quoted as saying "Provided I remain relatively sane I won’t quit before October 2009." In 2004, Mosley let it be known that he felt that Ferrari's then-team principal Jean Todt should succeed him as president of the FIA when he stepped down.

Criticism

During Mosley’s Presidency of the FIA there have been several controversial events that have often generated criticism and calls for him to resign. Of the criticism aimed at him Mosley has said: "I don’t mind flak – I come from a family where we have had flak all our lives – but I realise some people do. I love reading the blogs when they are being furious about me, it’s very entertaining, and there is the odd one which defends me. But F1 simply cannot divorce itself from the zeitgeist." Mosley and the FIA have been accused on several occasions in recent years by British journalists and Formula One team owners of favouring the Ferrari team through their judgements. Mosley has observed that "the line in the UK is – how could you be so beastly to [British team] McLaren? And the line on the continent is – you favour McLaren and [their driver] Hamilton, or you’re trying to make sure a Brit wins the championship."

2005 United States Grand Prix

Main article: 2005 United States Grand Prix

Formula One Fans at the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix holding a banner with the words "Blame Mosley"

The 2005 United States Grand Prix was run with only six cars, after the Michelin tyres used by the other 14 cars proved unsafe for the circuit. A proposal involving the addition of a temporary chicane to slow cars through the fastest corner of the circuit was rejected by Mosley. This effectively forced the teams running Michelin tyres to pull out for safety reasons. Paul Stoddart, the then-owner of the Minardi team, was prepared to compromise to accommodate Michelin teams - even though a reduced field would guarantee his team much needed points - and was particularly vocal in his criticism and renewed his calls for Mosley to resign.

2007 Formula One espionage controversy

Main article: 2007 Formula One espionage controversy

The 2007 Formula One season was dominated by Ferrari's accusations that the McLaren team had made illegal use of their intellectual property, leading to legal cases in the United Kingdom and Italy. Unlike previous cases, such as the Toyota team's illegal use of Ferrari intellectual property in 2004, the FIA investigated the case and eventually fined McLaren a net $100M and excluded the team from the 2007 constructors' championship. Later in the year, the Renault team was found guilty by the FIA of possessing McLaren's intellectual property, but were not punished. ITV commentator and Times columnist Martin Brundle was among those who criticised the FIA and Mosley for inconsistency; he subsequently received a writ for questioning the "energetic manner" in which he felt Mosley was pursuing McLaren.

Following the alleged racist abuse aimed at McLaren's mixed-race driver Lewis Hamilton during testing ahead of the 2008 season, Mosley has said he will impose immediate sanctions if there is a repeat.

News of the World allegations

In March 2008, the News of the World, a British tabloid newspaper, reported that Mosley had engaged in sado-masochistic sexual acts with five prostitutes in a scenario that the paper said involved Nazi role-playing. The paper posted a video of the incident on their website. Mosley apologised for "the embarrassment the revelations caused", but said that there was no Nazi role-playing involved. He said that the allegations were part of a covert operation to discredit him, and condemned what he called the "unwarranted invasion" of his privacy. Mosley announced an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the FIA to discuss the allegations, which took place on June 3.

Mosley was publicly criticised by former drivers, motor manufacturers and several of the largest national motoring bodies which form the FIA, although Mosley says he received much supportive private correspondence. His involvement in several high level motor sport events was cancelled,prompting claims that he could not perform his role as FIA president. Ecclestone initially supported his long-time ally, but in late April, the BBC said that he had asked Formula One team principals to sign a letter asking for Mosley’s resignation and that he had offered to sign it himself if all agreed. Seven of the teams were said to have signed.

At the EGM, Mosley won a vote of confidence with 103 votes in support and 55 against, with seven abstentions and four invalid votes. Later, clubs including ADAC, AAA and the KNAF threatened withdrawal from the FIA if Mosley would not resign. Other formerly critical organisations have since said that they will accept the outcome of the vote and now wish to move on.

Mosley took legal action against the News of the World, both in the UK and France. In the UK, the High Court ruled in July 2008 that the News of the World had breached Mosley's privacy and awarded him £60,000 in damages and £450,000 in legal fees. The presiding judge Mr Justice Eady said: "I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust."

References

Books

• Dorril, Stephen (2006). Blackshirt. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-140-25821-9.
• Grundy, Trevor (1999). Memoirs of a fascist childhood. Arrow Books. ISBN 0-09-927179-6.
• Henry, Alan (1992). Driving Forces: fifty men who have shaped motor racing. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-302-X.
• Henry, Alan (1989). March: The Grand Prix and Indycars. Autocourse. ISBN 0-905138-65-1.
• Jones, Nigel (2004). Mosley. Haus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-904341-09-8.
• Lawrence, Mike (1989). The Story of March - Four guys and a telephone. Aston Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-946627-24-X.
• Lovell, Terry (2004). Bernie's Game. Metro Books. ISBN 1843580861.
• Mosley, Oswald (1970). My Life. London: Nelson. ISBN 0-904816-00-1.
• Nye, Doug (1986). Autocourse history of the Grand Prix car 1966–85. Hazleton publishing. ISBN 0-905138-37-6.
• Rawnsley, Andrew (2001). Servants of The People. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-140-27850-8.

Newspapers

• Howell, Norman (October 9, 1991). "Mosley optimistic in challenge to president of Fisa". The Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Howell, Norman (October 10, 1991). "Balestre deposed as Fisa president". The Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• "Union Movement choice for Moss Side". The Times. September 26, 1961. p. 7. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Max Mosley interview on HARDtalk BBC 31 October 2007.
• The main men in F1 BBC 11 October 2004
• Mosley will have to go - Stewart BBC 28 April 2008
• Letter from Max Mosley to all FIA Club Presidents
• Mosley's fight to clear his famous name BBC 9 July 2008

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