Monaco royalty snubs Mosley (Update: Mosley claims conspiracy against him)

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Max Mosley’s hopes of remaining FIA president have been dealt a new blow as it has emerged that he will be in delegating his duties as FIA president to someone else at next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix .

Monaco’s royal palace do not want him to meet Prince Albert and so FIA vice-president Marco Piccinini will represent the sport’s governing body. Mosley will be, “conducting his business in other aspects of his role,” according to the FIA.

Mosley was previously asked by the Bahraini royal family not to attend their Grand Prix and there were rumours that King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Turkish Grand Prix organisers had been keen for him not to attend their respective races.

The Monaco Grand Prix is the last race before Mosley’s Extraordinary General Meeting on June 3rd at which the question of whether he has brought Formula 1 into disrepute will be discussed.

However Mosley has made it clear the discussion will be on his terms and is endeavouring to divert the debate onto whether or not there were any Nazi connotations in his infamous sadomasochistic sex session with five prostitutes.

In yesterday’s Autosport Mark Hughes pointed out that even if there is a vote of no confidence in Mosley at the EGM, it will not necessarily lead to any action being taken. When a group of Mosley’s opponents tried to pass a motion allowing action to be taken if there is a vote of no confidence in Mosley, they lost despite the vote showing 18 members in favour versus 14 against – because under FIA rules those who do not vote are assumed to be in favour of keeping things as they are. It’s a revealing example of how the cards are stacked in Mosley’s favour.

Earlier this week the Czech FIA representative Radovan Novak, who alleged that McLaren’s Ron Dennis was involved in the affair coming to light, has apologised to the McLaren boss.

Update: Max Mosley has written to the FIA club presidents suggesting that the News of the World were tipped off about what he was doing by someone seeking to undermine negotiations between himself and Formula One Group. The negotiations were about Formula One Group taking over greater control of F1 regulations. Read more here.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Monaco royalty snubs Mosley (Update: Mosley claims conspiracy against him)”

  1. I know this is probably going to sound very revolutionary, but would it be possible for those who have always opposed Max and Bernie in the FIA and FOM to just leave the organisation and set up on their own?
    This has been muttered about before, and as far as I can tell, the current Concorde Agreement is not to everyone’s liking, but does not appear to be the basis for any further discussions at the moment.
    Remember that Max, Bernie and Charlie are all where they are today because they successfully defeated the then incumbent FISA over various matters, and effectively took charge, presumably with a majority backing.
    Now I think we have reached the same situation again, and if the leaders won’t leave, it should be possible for the disenchanted followers to leave instead. Why should anybody have to play by rules stacked against them? Especially when it also comes with a heavy price tag in the case of the FIA!
    I expect there to be lots of muttering over my comments, as any split would appear to be disastorous for motorsport, but I think that Max and Bernie have been leading everyone, from the Administrators to the Manufacturers to the Teams and the Drivers in a direction nobody has particulary wanted to go in, and have taken lots of other people’s money for the priviledge of doing so!

  2. How many nails in the coffin is it going to take for Mosley to go…. Has the guy got any honour or dignity?

  3. “Has the guy got any honour or dignity?”

    I thought the images of him being strapped over a chair while getting spanked would have answered that question ;-)

    On a serious note, how long will this ridiculous charade continue for? Max must know about a whole army of skeletons in Bernie’s closet. Thinking in Terracota Army proportions probably doesn’t come close.
    But how would that be? Max takes Bernie down with him…
    And what if the Grim Reaper comes and takes Bernie down first…?

  4. The Max Mosley story highlights the world of deceit and hypocrisy we live in . And with extreme snob behaviour thrown in for good measure. The one sure thing in life we know is we are going to die one day , and the other is that we are all sinners , Prince ALbert , King Juan Carlos of Spain , tha Bharaini Royal Family all included. I think it would be perfectly in order for them to issue statements to the effect they do not condone or agree with the things Max has been alleged to have been up to , but more importantly use this as a message to the world that spying into an individuals private life with intent to destroying somebody , is even less acceptable. Instead , they act as though their hands are too clean to shake Max’s , and join the rest of the persuctors in achieving their evil goal.

  5. What is the point of a vote of confidence if it doesn’t allow for any consequences to be taken?!?

  6. As much as I hate to see someone’s personal life have any impact on their professional life (especially when, apart from the media’s hyping the matter, his professional life would’ve remained unimpacted)… if the media is going to continue to keep such a negative air around Mosley that he’s become a PC “faux pas” to deal with… he is essentially rendered ineffective… and thus needs to be removed.

  7. As I have always thought, Max Mosley does not care about F1, only in himself. The Monaco Grand Prix is the highlight of the season for so many fans, and the most high profile race on the calender.
    As with the Bahrain event, it has been overshadowed by Mosley and his torid sex scandal. I hope to God that he gets his just desserts next month, he richly deserves it.

  8. Maybe if people thought he was doing a good job in his position this wouldnt have been blown to such proportions.

    From an unbiased point of view, its unfair that his personal life has been used to try to oust him from his job, but there have been attempts to removed him based on his professional life that have not been successful… At this point I don’t care what it takes to get him out.

    Kinda reminds me of how Hitler consolidated power and wouldn’t allow himself to be removed… Coincidence?

  9. anyone else notice that when a vote was taken by the teams for Bernie only three of them “supported” Mosley?.
    they were
    Ferrari
    Torro Rosso
    Force India

    All Ferrari powered teams, could the old Marlboro racism conspiracy be forcing those teams hands?.

  10. You forgot Williams, Sush.

  11. Good point Sush.

  12. Williams supported Mosley, becuase they thought Jean Todt as the alternative was worse.

  13. Well here we go again – another snub/delegation? – invasion of privacy – that has been thrown out of every court he has used to try and gag this revelation.
    It is an expensive life style he has – fill that in yourselves – he is totally lacking in being the respectable figure he would like to present and as such can not represent a sport dealing in billions in revenue and turnover – but if he thinks this will go away the longer he stays – sorry max – we do get bored with it – very bored but if he tries to last until next year the sponsors will leave in droves – the reasons many and manifold but that was covered earlier this week by keith – ok I dont like Max – hold my hands up there

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