FIA Max Mosley confirms he will not stand for FIA Presidency

[Brogan]

In a letter to all FIA member clubs, FIA President Max Mosley has confirmed that he will not be a candidate on 23 October this year.

In a final swipe at Ari Vatanen he has officially named Jean Todt as his preferred successor.
He also states he "hopes to play a modest role" in the future.

Personally I think the FIA would do itself no favours electing Jean Todt.
He has too much Ferrari baggage and it's only going to lead to yet more claims of Ferrari favouritism.

FIA Press Release

Letter from Max Mosley

 

[RickD]

How long do you reckon before he changes his mind?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Just when I thought there was some good news from the crazy world of F1 with Max announcing he is standing down they go and spoil it all.

NO NO and Thrice NO to Jean Todt

One of the cornerstones of FOTAs campaign has been the independance of the FIA leadership. They wouldn't then go and back a former head of Ferrari F1 as the next candidate would they? I think there is at least one team at the heart of FOTA who would and I wonder who that could be?

Of course the final vote falls with the respective national associations that make up the FIA but bear in mind it's these same associations that have kept Max in place for so long.

If Jean Todt is elected imagine how any pro Ferrari verdicts would be received by the mass of people? Ferrari International Assistance all over again!!

Vatanen is the ideal man for the job, Independant, Non F1 background, potentially first ever non Brit - non French president, ex-politician and above all a clean break from those that have gone before.

With Max backing Todt no doubt Bernie will also put his money in that direction as well and before you know it it's a little whisper here, a promise of a GP there and the threat of losing one somewhere else and it's President Todt.

Arggggghhhhhhhh

Why can't it all just be about a group of people racing cars every other weekend.

Right I am now seriously bleeping bleeped off..........

 

[Brogan]

It will be an uphill struggle for Ari from now on.

Due to the rule changes proposed by Max Mosley back in 2005 (?), any persons standing for President must also name a full cabinet of 22 members.
And each person standing must have different cabinet members.

With Mosley backing Todt, you have to assume the existing cabinet will fall into line and therefore Ari will have to put together an entirely new cabinet which will obviously be a disadvantage as none of them will have had any recent experience in the FIA cabinet or dealings with the member countries.

I hope whoever does get in revokes that particular rule immediately as its sole purpose is to strengthen the incumbent's position and make it extremely difficult for anyone else to successfully stand against them.

 

[bogaTYR]

there isn't even a new president of FIA and already the attackts start

what is it that makes the FIA president such a target for F1 fans?

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wasn't aware of that Rule Bro,

I'm sitting at work seething and now that extra bit of info which has gone down like sand in a pair of underpants has just added to my joyful mood

I give up, I seriously give up......

Wish someone would start a break away series and really......oh wait

 

[Brogan]

I found the article referring to the cabinet members.

However, success in the fight for FIA president is not just about the attributes of the single man standing for the top job - because it requires a whole 22-strong 'cabinet' list to be nominated prior to the election taking place.

This cabinet system was introduced in 2005, just prior to Mosley successfully winning another term as president after standing unopposed. The original aim of the cabinet system was to ensure that wild card candidates could not put themselves forward and hope to capitalise on merely a negative vote for the current president.

In a letter sent in 2005, prior to the FIA senate approving the cabinet system, Mosley said: "In order to be successful, a candidate for the presidency would need the open support and backing of major participants in the FIA.

"This would mean that the presidency would tend to go to someone with a team and a programme, both of which had broad support throughout the FIA rather than the backing of any particular interest group."

In a reminder document sent last week by the FIA to national motoring authorities worldwide, which has been seen by AUTOSPORT, the process by which the elections at the General Assembly on October 23 will take place were laid out.

It confirmed that the list of candidates for president may be submitted from September 11 to October 2. The document also said that an application to stand for president had to include the 'full name, position and signature' of each of the 22 candidates being put forward to form the 'cabinet'.

This core group of people must include a President of the Senate, a Deputy President for Sport, a Deputy President for Automobile Mobility and Tourism, five members of the Senate, seven vice-presidents of the FIA for Sport and seven vice-presidents of the FIA for Automobile Mobility and Tourism.

Assembling a 22-strong team ready to be so public in its support is not an insurmountable problem, but one big difficulty is that none of the individuals on one presidential hopeful's list can be present on another.

The FIA document said: "A list cannot include a candidate who is already registered on another list, on pain of ineligibility of the said candidate. Should such be the case, (and after the identification by the FIA Secretariat) the list reader must provide a replacement for the 'lost' candidate in the conditions set out in the FIA Internal Regulations."

It really is a crazy system as it means candidates can't all choose the best people available for their particular cabinet but just who is left.
Sounds like a perfect way to end up with a weak cabinet full of less than ideal members to me.

Full story here: Analysis: Vatanen's name not enough

 

[bogaTYR]

this seems to be only a part of a muc bigger story: a new concord agreement according to the guardian

A new Concorde agreement, the protocol covering technical, sporting and commercial regulations in Formula One, is set to be signed tomorrow, possibly bringing to an end the damaging period of confrontation and unrest which has scarred the sport for the past couple of seasons.

This uneasy compromise is expected to follow its predecessors as a tripartite agreement signed by the FIA, Bernie Ecclestone on behalf of CVC Capital Partners, the sport's commercial rights owners, and the Formula One Teams' Association.

It will also remove the prospect of a breakaway world championship which was threatened by Fota if the FIA pressed ahead with some of its more controversial proposals. They included at one point a draconian budget cap and the idea of "two-tier" technical regulations which would reward teams who signed up for the budget cap with additional technical freedom and higher-revving, and therefore potentially more powerful, engines.

Every team will run to the same set of technical rules in 2010. Now that the sport has resolved most of its problems Max Mosley is understood to be standing by his decision not to stand for re-election as FIA president and will step down in October.

"I think as far as costs are concerned it will pretty much see the status quo maintained in 2010," said one senior team member, "after which I think market forces, and the possibility of reduced investment from sponsors as a result of the damage this dispute has done, could send expenditure into a natural free fall."

Currently the teams share 50% of the reputed annual $1bn commercial rights income, with Ecclestone and CVC taking the rest. Teams will continue to be paid through a complex formula which rewards not only recent race and qualifying performances but also overall positions in the constructors' championship during the previous two half-seasons.

Another issue to be resolved is the sport's expansion away from its European heartland, a matter thrown into fresh focus today by the Nürburgring circuit not being prepared to stage next year's German Grand Prix as a substitute for Hockenheim. "The only way we could manage it would be if Bernie reduced his fee," said Walter Kafitz, the Nürburgring managing director. "But I cannot imagine he is willing to accept my wishes."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/ju ... ement-fota

 

[cider_and_toast]

Boga,

The President of the FIA is where the buck stops in all aspects of F1 (and of course every other motorsport series under the FIA control). After the autocracy of Max Mosley and his predecessor Jean-Marie Balestere who between them governed the sport for over 30 years I feel the time has come for a change of style at the top of the FIA and a shift away from a Formula one centric association to one that should encompass all forms of motorsport.

I don't believe that Jean Todt would be the man to do that. Yes I understand he had a back ground with Peugeot and WRC before moveing to Ferrari however I feel his close association with Ferrari would be to the detrement of F1. He may turn out to be independant and non-bias in any way but can you imagine the out cry after each decision that appears to be in Ferraris favour. We've had enough of that in the last few years surely. It would be a bit like your mother in law sitting as the judge in your divorce hearing !!!

I take your point that bashing before anything has been announced is a little pre-emptive but I can't help being a cynic.

 

[teabagyokel]

Jean Todt's record with the "good of F1" is not exactly peachy clean, is it? For example, the Schuichello farce in Austria in 2002, and wasn't he the bloke who stood in the way of common sense prevailing at Indianapolis in 2005.

If we affiliate ourselves as an FIA-registered forum, can we vote Arie?

 

[bogaTYR]

CaT

my comment was with my tongue glued firmly in my cheek

 

[cider_and_toast]

Sorry Boga, I'm having a bad day.

No offence meant and hope none taken.

 

[bogaTYR]

no worries CaT... absolutely no offence taken

 

[teabagyokel]

Is this becoming Party Politics. The Max* Party candidate is Jean Todt and the Sense* Party candidate is Arie Vatanen!

*Provisional names - but we can't use some of the more obvious ones for the Max Party in case we get sued!

 

[Speshal]

Oh hooray.......

oh.......


oh bugger.

 

[Brogan]

As expected, Jean Todt has announced he is standing and he has stated that Nick Craw who is currently the FIA deputy president would be President of the Senate.

In addition, Brian Gibbons would be deputy president for mobility and Graham Stoker would be deputy president for sport.

This comment made me laugh...

It is my intention to continue and expand the outstanding work of President Mosley, who for 16 years has worked tirelessly to strengthen the FIA's major motorsport championships and to position the FIA as the voice of the motoring public, actively promoting safe, clean and affordable mobility for all.

More than a bit of mutual back-slapping going in there...

Full story: Todt will stand for FIA presidency

 

[cider_and_toast]

Smilie depicting mid 30's Lotus fan climbing scaffold, placing rope around own neck, pulling lever and dropping 6 to 8 feet through trap door.

I've heard rumours that next week Help the aged is going to announce Harold Shipman is going to be appointed as their new head.

 

[teabagyokel]

I've heard rumours that next week Help the aged is going to announce Harold Shipman is going to be appointed as their new head.

And I've heard a mosque in Burnley is going to appoint Nick Griffin Imam. And Nelson Mandela is going to be president of the South African Pro-Apartheid Society...

And the ex-boss of Ferrari is going to stop pro-Ferrari bias. Is it just me or do you expect Ferrari to design the FOTA series then cut McLaren, BMW, Renault, Toyota, Red Bulls and Brawn adrift, leaving them as the sole big team in F1?

I wouldn't put it past the cunning gits, remember when they gave McLaren their technical details to find that McLaren didn't have a photocopier on premises?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Newsflash!!!!

This is cider_and_toast reporting on behalf of Clip TV.

I'm here outside the Gary Glitter Child Care centre and petting zoo where I can confirm one of the zoo's Leopards has just changed his spots.

Also coming up in the sport, Lord Lucan today won the 3.30 at Aintree riding Shergar, He beat Elvis by 2 lengths and from the world of F1 a non bias, ex team head has stepped forward as the most likely candidate to unite the teams and repair the damage to F1's global reputation.

Stay tuned to Clip TV for more information.

 

[GeoffP]

Does this mean that Michael Schumacher will now be taking over from Charlie Whiting?