Jun 26, 2009, 8:10 GMT
Hamburg - Formula One faces more turmoil as world motorsport supremo Max Mosley said he is reconsidering his future in anger about the team organization FOTA.
News reports on Friday said that the FIA president Mosley has sent a letter to FOTA chairman Luca Di Montezemolo in which he said FOTA deliberately misled the media on how a settlement was reached Wednesday over a budget cap row.
On Wednesday, at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, a group of eight rebel teams led by Ferrari ended a breakaway threat and agreed to cut costs. The FIA withdrew a budget cap plan and Mosley said he would not seek another term as FIA boss in October.
Media said he is upset that it was reported he was forced out of office, will have no more role in FIA from October onwards and that FIA Senate head Michel Boeri was in charge of F1 with immediate effect.
'If you wish the agreement we made to have any chance of survival, you and FOTA must immediately rectify your actions. You must correct the false statements which have been made and make no further such statements,' he said.
Mosley reportedly sent the letter before a Thursday FOTA news conference in which he demanded an apology. This did not happen.
'Given your and FOTA's deliberate attempt to mislead the media, I now consider my options open. At least until October, I am president of the FIA with the full authority of that office.
'After that it is the FIA member clubs, not you or FOTA, who will decide on the future leadership of the FIA.'
'We made a deal yesterday in Paris to end the recent difficulties in Formula One. A fundamental part of this was that we would both present a positive and truthful account to the media,' said Mosley.
'I was therefore astonished to learn that FOTA has been briefing the press that Mr Boeri has taken charge of Formula 1, something which you know is completely untrue; that I had been forced out of office, also false; and, apparently, that I would have no role in the FIA after October, something which is plain nonsense, if only because of the FIA statutes.
'Furthermore, you have suggested to the media that I was a 'dictator,' an accusation which is grossly insulting to the 26 members of the World Motor Sport Council ... not to mention the representatives of the FIA's 122 countries who have democratically endorsed everything I and my World Motor Sport Council colleagues have done during the last 18 years,' he said.
The letter could reopen the row between FIA and FOTA which started when the FIA announced the budget cap of around 60 million dollars in mid-April. The war of words culminated when the eight FOTA teams announced a breakaway series last week Friday.
Your Talkback on this Story