Jun 23, 2008

Mosley's Peccadillo Could Split F1

They always seemed a bit of an odd couple, Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, the two prime movers of Formula One. Thanks largely to Formula One, Ecclestone is an incredibly wealthy entrepreneur of Jewish extraction, while his longtime comrade-in-arms, Max Mosley, is the son of former British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley. The elder Mosley had such close ties with Adolph Hitler that Hitler came to his wedding. But somehow this unusual twosome has remained together through thick and thin for decades, ruling F1 racing with an iron hand. But now all that has changed.

Certainly Ecclestone has always known about Mosley’s fascist connections -- and let’s be clear and note that Max Mosley has not been accused of current fascist leanings -- but the orgy scandal surrounding Mosley has apparently thrown a whole new light on things. Ecclestone seems ready to forgive the sex aspects of the escapade, but he is significantly less forgiving about the supposed Nazi overtones of the recent video-documented bondage-and-discipline-style shenanigans. He has been quoted by The Times of London as fearing that business leaders will pull sponsorship from the racing series, because they are uncomfortable with the Nazi imagery that has attached itself to Mosley in the aftermath of the scandal.

"The thing that worries me is that the Jewish community controls an awful lot of the finance that comes into Formula One, directly or indirectly," Ecclestone told The Times.  “They say the FIA shouldn't let somebody like Max represent them."

While there have been threats that Formula One teams would break from the FIA to start their own series before, the recent brouhaha has not only re-ignited that possibility, but that scenario has been openly raised by Ecclestone. Ironically, earlier talk of a breakaway was largely fueled by dissatisfaction with Ecclestone, but now Mosley is the target.

The F1 teams can easily walk in 2008, since the so-called Concorde Agreement that spelled out the relationships between the teams and the FIA expires after this season.  Ecclestone has endorsed establishing a new agreement based largely on the old, but Mosley has opposed that idea. So, the odd pairing could well be at its final crossroads.  Which fork Formula One racing takes will be fascinating to watch.