Mosley Sticking Around?
Discussion
F! Fanatic has posted a think-piece regarding Jean Todt’s proposal to have commissioners for each of the FIA championships. This would mean a person is appointed to run the day-to-day affairs of F1. Is this just a convenient way of allowing Mosley back into F1? Could Todt appoint Mosley to a new seat in the FIA and re-inflict him on F1? The article also suggests that Ari Vatanen has messed up his candidacy for the FIA post so badly that Todt's win and agenda are fait accompli.
Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
dafeller said:
F! Fanatic has posted a think-piece regarding Jean Todt’s proposal to have commissioners for each of the FIA championships. This would mean a person is appointed to run the day-to-day affairs of F1. Is this just a convenient way of allowing Mosley back into F1? Could Todt appoint Mosley to a new seat in the FIA and re-inflict him on F1? The article also suggests that Ari Vatanen has messed up his candidacy for the FIA post so badly that Todt's win and agenda are fait accompli.
Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
saw that...Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
what does it take to get rid of these clowns?
I don't think that what Vatanen did messed up his campaign. The system was already set to bring in the Toad. No doubt not many of these ideas are his there will be an organ grinder in the background making the monkey dance. I just wish someone would shoot the organgrinder.
Edited by stifler on Thursday 6th August 08:22
dafeller said:
F! Fanatic has posted a think-piece regarding Jean Todt’s proposal to have commissioners for each of the FIA championships. This would mean a person is appointed to run the day-to-day affairs of F1. Is this just a convenient way of allowing Mosley back into F1? Could Todt appoint Mosley to a new seat in the FIA and re-inflict him on F1? The article also suggests that Ari Vatanen has messed up his candidacy for the FIA post so badly that Todt's win and agenda are fait accompli.
Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
Cast your mind back to when Mosley was elevated to the nearest he'll ever get to the peerage. Despite Balestra believing that he'd got enough votes to resoundly defeat Mosley - I wonder what on earth his advisor was on - he lost comprehensively. Mosley threw him a bone, FISA, i/c motorsport, but in the end Balestra, for all his faults he was a motor sport enthusiast, just sort of drifted away into the ether.Is this even possible? And at this late date, having mussed around for the last few weeks in a so-called peaceful arrangement with the FIA, could FOTA be completely stuck with Max AGAIN?
The real power lies not in the presidency but in the Concord Agreement. This was negotiated in Mosley's absence and all he was allowed to do was accept FOTA/CVC into the FiA fold. Unless the teams and the CVC have missed a trick, the FiA will have had their influence marginalised. If they’ve got any sense they would have organised F1 to be, in essence, a breakaway series. And to prove it, the Concord Agreement.
So the seat shuffling that Todt will, no doubt, indulge in will be rather pointless.
Todt has suggested that he will take a major interest in the financial side of F1. This is ‘whistling’ in the wind. The FiA is banned by EU law from doing so. What this is is probably some form of press/PR stunt. At the moment CVC has a debt to manage. It seems likely their revenue will fall in the short, probably medium, term. They will not cut costs. And if they don’t then where is the money going to come from to reduce costs? Certainly not the FiA.
What will come though is political wrangling with regards to the new CA to start in 2013. Expect a period of various groups forming alliances and then forming others. It will not be an edifying spectacle. FOTA have surprised everyone, not least themselves, by sticking together for so long. The main power in this has been the manufacturers. This situation is unlikely to remain intact. Todt will form alliances and power groups. But the main authority Mosley had was gained from his alliance with Ecclestone. Bernie may well not last, physically or mentally, to the end of the newly signed CA. In any case, I cannot see him working with Todt in the same way as he has with Mosley.
If Todt does place Mosley into the F1 stewardship then we are in for interesting times. There will be a battle between them for supremacy, one which Mosley, as the newly demoted ex-president, will have difficulty winning. The new found friends he made will drift over to the new power base: Todt.
As for Todt, I’m not so sure he has the ability to last in the position. For all the work he did to bring wins to Ferrari, he was kicked out, rather unceremoniously and publicly, so he did something to upset the powers in the company. One thing that has been proved to me time and time again is that if a person in authority makes an error then the next time they are in power, they make the same error again. I think it has something to do with the fact that when they become bosses they imagine they don’t make mistakes so never learn from them.
Will he try a trick like the Sauber/Fontana incident? I can’t help thinking things are a lot more serious now.
The FiA under Mosley proved itself to be a big threat to the money men. This is what brought Mosley down. Todt has started off rather badly by, it would appear, threatening them from the start. That said, this is just electioneering and I feel that he doesn’t believe what he says any more than we do.
But the presidency has been weakened under Mosley. If I were Todt the first thing I would do (after removing all the mirrors in the offices) would be to claw back this power in some way. To go in threatening, because what he said is a threat to the moneymen, tends to suggest he is not aware of just how weak his position is. Or, of course, he is just saying what Mosley wants him to say. In which case he’ll ignore it and go his own way once in position.
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