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.
Ferrari confirmed on Friday said that the FIA president Mosley has
sent a letter to Ferrari and 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.
News reports also said that Mosley has written another letter, to
the World Motor Sport Council of FIA, in which he reiterated his fear
that FOTA aimed to take over the sport.
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.
A Ferrari spokesman told the German Press Agency dpa that di
Montezemolo has responded to the letter, saying that FOTA accepts the
agreement which Mosley announced on Wednesday but giving no further
details.
Mosley is said to be 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.
FOTA issued no apology but mentioned Mosley's role in the
agreement and also called for a future FIA leader to be an
independent person.
'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,' Mosley warned.
'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 autosport magazine quoted Mosley as telling the World Motor
Sport Council: 'It is disappointing that Montezemolo did not keep his
part of the bargain we made last Wednesday.'
He said that 'FOTA falsely claimed that they had ousted me and
imposed their will on the FIA' and gave a warning for the future.
'No doubt we face a difficult period. This may well result in
short-term problems in Formula One. It is possible that FOTA will set
up an independent series. That is their right, provided they do so
under the International Sporting Code.
'But the Formula One World Championship will continue to be run by
the FIA as it has been for 60 years.
The letters 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.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story