FIA confirms Alan Donnelly joke

[flemke]

"Rather than having a permanent steward operating alongside two designated race stewards - one international and one from the national sporting authority - the FIA has decided to now use three nominated stewards at each event."

"Furthermore, the three officials who are chosen for each event will be assisted by FIA president Max Mosley's official representative Alan Donnelly - who it is hoped will manage the decision-making process more efficiently than was seen at times last year."


Alan Donnelly is the Mosley crony who has no evident qualifications in motor sport, but who runs a consultancy whose clients include the FIA, FOA (Bernie) and Ferrari.
In other words, he's the perfect guy to have as the chief steward.

Full story of the continuing farce:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64826

[kevin ritson]

I note Sovereign Strategy have removed Ferrari from their list of clients. A decision of conscience or convenience I wonder?

[flemke]

kevin ritson said:

I note Sovereign Strategy have removed Ferrari from their list of clients. A decision of conscience or convenience I wonder?

Surprise, surprise! Who would have imagined it?

If you look at the services that SS offers, you will see that most of them relate to bullshit and spin.
One must therefore conclude that their decision to remove Ferrari from their list of clients (which of course is very different from removing Ferrari from actually being a client) was underlain by the same thinking that they share with their clients - bullshit and spin.

[air cooled]

flemke said:

kevin ritson said:

I note Sovereign Strategy have removed Ferrari from their list of clients. A decision of conscience or convenience I wonder?

Surprise, surprise! Who would have imagined it?

If you look at the services that SS offers... - bullshit and spin.

So a different SS to the one Sir Oswald recommended to his friends then ?



EFA

[flemke]

air cooled said:

flemke said:

kevin ritson said:

I note Sovereign Strategy have removed Ferrari from their list of clients. A decision of conscience or convenience I wonder?

Surprise, surprise! Who would have imagined it?

If you look at the services that SS offers... - bullshit and spin.

So a different SS to the one Sir Oswald recommended to his friends then ?



EFA

Well...has that been established?

[Stuismyname]

It will be very interesting to see how this pans out. I would be willing to bet that the first controversial decision made by the "nominated stewards", assisted by Max' official representative, will be unanimous.

Perhaps the 'inefficiency' that the FIA refers to from last season stems from incidents like the Brazilian GP; where the stewards were reported to have found the BMW's fuel to be outside the permitted temperature range, and then later, mysteriously any hint of sanction evaporated. I doubt this had anything to with Ferrari's WDC title being put in jeopardy, of course.

Now, with the new stewards in place, I'm sure we won't see any such 'inefficiency' again.

Edited by Stuismyname on Thursday 24th January 15:42

[ph123]

It is absolutely ing incredible.
Allow me though one moment though, to offer a counter charge to all this -I remember thinking about the success that NASCAR were having a few years back. One of the principle reasons behind it's huge success it was suggested, was that it was run by Bill France and the France family. Run via a rod of iron.
The same really applied to BE and F1; and you have to deduce that if a formulae/entertainment package is going to work, then at the helm you need a dictator who said 'Hey, this is how you play it, NO alternatives' and you acceded or left.
Does Max see this now as his role with BE's slowly slackening his hold, to be the man which makes it work, in the fashion he above all decrees?
It is astonishing; and I don't think there's much anyone can do about it.
He’s just such a complete political animal.

[air cooled]

Why do "we" continue to accept without question that Max is in charge ?





Who owns the franchises and TV rights to F1 (or % thereof) ?

Max the Monkey or the Vertically Challenged Organ Grinder ?

I agree with the sentiments about it all being just a little fixed but not that Max is pulling the strings. How much money does Max make out of F1 in comparison to the VCOG ? What makes you think Fezza donate to Max and not Beria Bernie ?

Who's money went down when the TV audiences went down coz Schuey was winning to much ?

Who would loose out most, financially, if there was a rival Manufacturers championship ?

[flemke]

Stuismyname said:

It will be very interesting to see how this pans out. I would be willing to bet that the first controversial decision made by the "nominated stewards", assisted by Max' official representative, will be unanimous.

Perhaps the 'inefficiency' that the FIA refers to from last season stems from incidents like the Brazilian GP; where the stewards were reported to have found the BMW's fuel to be outside the permitted temperature range, and then later, mysteriously any hint of sanction evaporated. I doubt this had anything to with Ferrari's WDC title being put in jeopardy, of course.

Now, with the new stewards in place, I'm sure we won't see any such 'inefficiency' again.

Exactly. This is just another travesty foisted upon motor sport by the filth of the FIA.

Let's think about this. You're an FIA "independent steward". By definition, you will have been chosen in part because you are not from a country from which any F1 competitior comes. That would mean that the steward cannot be from, amongst other places:

Germany
Italy
UK
France
Japan
Spain
Brazil
Australia

In other words, the steward cannot be from the countries that, collectively, comprise about 90% of the world's motorsports knowledge and experience. That hardly leaves a deep pool of expert stewards.

Then there is the fact that the three ordinary stewards will all be temporary, for that particular race. These stewards will want to make the right decisions (one hopes), but they also will want to remain in good standing and have the best chance to be invited to another race, and another after that.
So you've got these three subsidiary, temporary, insecure guys, who are required to function under the "management" of the permanent guy, who by mere coincidence is a buddy of Mosley's and has proudly listed Ferrari as one of his clients.
Oh, and the permanent guy who manages the process has the highly impressive motorsports CV of:

- bureaucrat in the Boilermakers Union
- Labour member of European Parliament, specialising in works of the "Party of European Socialists"
- Member of European Parliamentary Delegation to G7 on development of global information society
- Chairman of Transatlantic Audio-visual Round Table
- Chairman of quango charged with expanding use of IT in Northeastern UK
- Chairman of Sovereign Strategy, a "global public affairs" company

And this guy, with no apparent experience in motorsports (Has he ever turned a spanner on a car? Has he ever been to a race? Has he ever been on a race track? Can he name the last F1 champion before Schumacher? Does he even have a driving licence?) will be, in effect, the chief and deciding steward in such decisive questions as whether the FIA's fuel temp regulations are enforceable, and whether blocking your teammate in the pitlane during Q3 should result in a team's being disqualified from Constructors' points.

Good call, Max - as usual.

[ph123]

... so good ... we should do something with this flemke.

[flemke]

air cooled said:

Why do "we" continue to accept without question that Max is in charge ?





Who owns the franchises and TV rights to F1 (or % thereof) ?

Max the Monkey or the Vertically Challenged Organ Grinder ?

I agree with the sentiments about it all being just a little fixed but not that Max is pulling the strings. How much money does Max make out of F1 in comparison to the VCOG ? What makes you think Fezza donate to Max and not Beria Bernie ?

Who's money went down when the TV audiences went down coz Schuey was winning to much ?

Who would loose out most, financially, if there was a rival Manufacturers championship ?

I used to think that same, but the balance has shifted.
Remember that Bernie has sold all but the fag end of his holdings in FOA, FOM, and the rest. They are now controlled by a private equity firm.

At Indy '05 there was a major battle between the racers - including Bernie - who wanted the show to go on, and Max and Ferrari, who of course wanted Ferrari to walk it with no points for anyone else and wanted to humiliate the Michelin runners (who coincided with the GPMA membership).
A guy who was in the room told me that the argument (over the telephone, because Max can't be bothered to attend many races except the one near his Monte Carlo home) between Bernie and Max was so intense that ultimately Bernie smashed his mobile against a wall in frustration.
You will recall that Max won that argument.

[CivicMan]

One can imagine Mad Max's rantings at his "stewards"....

"You VILL obey orders....!! If you do not, you vill be shot."

[jamieboy]

Maybe I've misread it, but I don't see any mention that he'll be working as a steward - just assisting the stewards. A more positive / less conspiracy-theorist view would be that having someone like him (a manager/politician type) might allow the stewards to concentrate solely on steward-ing, with this chap acting as a facilitator.

[DrTre]

jamieboy said:

Maybe I've misread it, but I don't see any mention that he'll be working as a steward - just assisting the stewards. A more positive / less conspiracy-theorist view would be that having someone like him (a manager/politician type) might allow the stewards to concentrate solely on steward-ing, with this chap acting as a facilitator.

I don't disagree but faciliator to what though? Why would/should he be necessary? The last thing that's needed is yet more manager/politician types ...in any walk of life let alone sport.

[flemke]

jamieboy said:

Maybe I've misread it, but I don't see any mention that he'll be working as a steward - just assisting the stewards. A more positive / less conspiracy-theorist view would be that having someone like him (a manager/politician type) might allow the stewards to concentrate solely on steward-ing, with this chap acting as a facilitator.

Jamie,

Why for goodness sake can't we have three permanent stewards (or maybe two, plus the local rep) who are both beyond reproach and deeply experienced and understanding of the issues? Get three guys in there who can be trusted. There is no possible justification for Mosley sending in his boy to "manage" the process.
The real problem here isn't the structure itself. If the regulating body were itself beyond reproach, trustworthy and unbiased, then one would not worry about the structure, because the integrity of the regulator would sort out whatever needed to be sorted without fear or favour. The steward structure in NASCAR, for example, never got an iota of public scrutiny, because it was obvious that they treated (or mistreated) everyone equally.
Because so many racing fans believe that the regulator is intellectually dishonest, however, we have to look to the structure itself to keep him in check. This structure unfortunately appears to have been designed to do the opposite.

[jamieboy]

flemke said:

There is no possible justification for Mosley sending in his boy to "manage" the process.

Well, if installing a 'manager' (if that is what his as-yet-unspecified role turns out to be) allows the stewards to concentrate on the technicalities of 'stewarding' without having to worry about ensuring their decisions are communicated quickly and accurately to everyone concerned etc., is that not a justification? It seems to me that their technical knowledge would be better used to consider the race, the result, the rules, the technicalities, the incidents. Given that there will (from my reading) be a different set of stewards at each race, there must also be some benefit in having someone there as a constant.

I'm not saying it's a necessity, I'm not saying it's the best thing to ever happen to the sport. Just pointing out that in this case it's perhaps too early to play the "Max Mosley is ruining everything, and it's all his dad's fault" card.

[ph123]

Think you missed the emphasis JB.
The emphasis is on 'his boy to manage' which is a little different to how you're reading it.

[dumbfunk]

flemke said:

At Indy '05 there was a major battle between the racers - including Bernie - who wanted the show to go on, and Max and Ferrari, who of course wanted Ferrari to walk it with no points for anyone else and wanted to humiliate the Michelin runners (who coincided with the GPMA membership).
A guy who was in the room told me that the argument (over the telephone, because Max can't be bothered to attend many races except the one near his Monte Carlo home) between Bernie and Max was so intense that ultimately Bernie smashed his mobile against a wall in frustration.
You will recall that Max won that argument.

Thanks for recounting this story Flemke - it supports a belief that I've held for a while that for all of the issues we may have with Bernie, he fundamentally wants the same thing from F1 as we do. His earnings are tied into our enjoyment so whilst motives differ, the goal is the same.

With Max I just cannot shake the feeling that he is primarily driven by his own ego to the detriment of all other factors. In your example above was it not a case of "Michelin runners will not race because I say they will not" even if they offer to do it for zero points to uphold the name of the sport?



dumbfunk

[jamieboy]

ph123 said:

Think you missed the emphasis JB.
The emphasis is on 'his boy to manage' which is a little different to how you're reading it.

I don't think I did, just that the emphasis is in the eye of the emphasiser. Or something like that.

[Stuismyname]

jamieboy said:

Given that there will (from my reading) be a different set of stewards at each race, there must also be some benefit in having someone there as a constant.

Aside from the highly dubious merits of having three puppets installed by the FIA, variable from race to race, by the FIA .. you cannot seriously suggest that there is a "benefit" to the sport from installing, as the only permanent member of the stewards, a PR agent with no motorsport credentials and who is linked personally with the FIA president and, who receives external business to his consultancy from one of the competitors, and indeed the governing body itself?

Edited by Stuismyname on Thursday 24th January 17:53