He said:

The CRH does not wish to have control over the Formula One regulations…. The FIA should be solely responsible for policing and enforcing the Formula One regulations fairly, transparently and without bias.

As I said in my previous post I look forward to you presenting any evidence or facts to back up your position. This situation reminds me of numerous online discussions in the aftermath of Schumacher parking on the racing line at Monaco. Those of us who thought he was guilty were discussing when he braked, when he came off the brakes, steering inputs while the Scumi fans in unison recited “but Michael wouldn’t do that”. 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. No thought, no consideration simply reciting their mantra.

If I was running the NOTW right now and I had Nazi evidence I wouldn’t publish it. I would wait until I got to court so that it would have more impact on the jury. Of course in the pice of video that has been released there is someone wearing a garment very similar to that worn by concentration camp prisoners. That may be enough to at least infer Nazi symbolism.

If Max has actually issued a suit against NOTW the matter will be sub judice and they will not be allowed to publish.

Personally I think Max should have been removed from office years ago for incompetence. The world sportscar championship doesn’t exist. The world rally championship has gone from ten to three works teams under his tenure. F1 grids are shrinking while he has screwed up the points system, instituted tactical chess in place of racing and demostrated bias in favour of Ferrari and blatant hatred of Ron Dennis. We have the half baked introduction of KERS next season which is his great new initiative. McLaren introduced braking energy recovery about 5 years ago and Max banned it so his lauding of KERS seems fake to me. He doesn’t believe what he is saying otherwise he would not have imposed limits on ots efficiency. It is simply the politically expedient thing to say. The man is not fit to be president.

He has put in place procedures that make it damn near impossible for any one to challenge for the presidency and has wiped FISA out of existence so that no-one can build a power base to challenge him. He has behaved like a dictator in a banana republic.

Green Flag says that in company with others I am totally wrong about the Mosley saga. TOTALLY WRONG. So I must be wrong when I said there was absolutely no need to re-negotiate a 100 year contract after a few years. I must be wrong when I said that Max was not the only person capable of negotiating the contract and that he had disqualified himself from negotiating the original contract. etc etc

I have no doubt Green Flag will come back with more hot air and no factual evidence on any of the points he has made and no contradicting evidence of any of the points made by myself or others. Simply a variation on the traditional 4 legs good 2 legs bad theme. Max good everybody else on the face of the planet wrong, self interested, gullible, naive etc etc. Prove me wrong and explain your point rather than just throwing around insults and hoping that anyone is naive or gullible enough to believe them.

You claim that I’m “ultimately wrong about the entire Mosley saga”. I presume you come to that conclusion after reading my posts – but what have I said that is “wrong”? I haven’t claimed there was Nazism involved. I haven’t claimed that he should be removed from office. I haven’t claimed that Max is an unfit president. I suspect that the fact that my posts are not proclaiming that ‘Max is great’ has led you to the conclusion that I must be biased against Max.

My two main claims in this thread have been: (1) Either Max is lying about his importance to the FIA, OR one person really is very important to the FIA (ie the office of FIA President is too powerful), which is a sad position for the organisation to be in; (2) It is possible that evidence of Nazi overtones exists.

You’ve given no arguments for suggesting that I’m wrong about (1). Regarding (2), for you the fact that NotW haven’t shown any real evidence of Nazi overtones is itself evidence that they don’t have any. I think it’s possible that they do have evidence which they are withholding until nearer the Extraordinary Meeting. This is how tabloids work. Note that I am not saying ‘certain’ or even ‘probable’; merely ‘possible’.

Meanwhile Max’s denial is either true or false. If false, he was involved in a Nazi-themed session. In this case, public knowledge of his acts would not only result in a humilating exit from his FIA role, but also in widespread public revulsion. In order to avoid this, he would have no choice but to deny the facts, and then to try to cast as much doubt on the facts as possible so that they could not be proven conclusively. Whether innocent or guilty of Nazi fantasies, any human being who wants to avoid disgrace would probably react in the way Max is reacting now. Therefore, based on Max’s current behaviour, I cannot conclude whether he is innocent or guilty of Nazi- fantasising (which I realise would not be a crime, but I do feel would be enough to be removed from office for).

I may well be missing something huge, and I may well be naive and wrong without realising it. If this is so, I would honestly appreciate being shown the light, Green Flag, instead of being on the receiving end of comments such as your previous one. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But instead of hysterically accusing me of being wrong, you’d be more likely to get me to agree with you if you put forward a convincing and enlightening argument which I may have missed.

PS: If the NOTW had any real evidence of Nazism they would have shown it by now; Max has outright denied a Nazi element and he would know whether the NOYW would be in a position contradict him.

Steven Roy, I also saw Ari Vatanen come up as a possible replacement and my thoughts are exactly the same. I somehow doubt that he would be able to break into the position unless he gets some strong support from somewhere. But that would be the same for everyone once Max goes, so he probably stands a real chance.

You’re probably right that there were “no military uniforms… no swastikas, no Hitler salutes or mustaches”, because if there were, NotW would have revealed this by now. Many of their arguments (such as ’speaking in German implies Nazism’) are of course terribly weak. But I somehow doubt they are stupid enough to actually believe in such arguments, and I suspect they are holding some cards close to their chest. For a start, they claim to have a witness – one of the hookers – who has yet to make a statement in any court.

Besides, you may argue that Max’s background makes it easier for him to be *portrayed* as someone who has Nazi-themed sex fantasies. But a psychologist could argue that his background genuinely makes him more likely to have such fantasies. The evidence so far is only circumstantial, but strongly so. Of course circumstantial evidence is not and should not be enough to condemn an innocent man. But my point is that you only have a plausible theory – that Max was deliberately smeared – but little or no evidence to support that theory. There simply isn’t enough evidence in public for us to make a definitive judgement about the existence or otherwise of Nazi overtones. To confidently claim there was “nothing Nazi about it” suggests that you are willing to argue in support of Mosley without due consdieration of the facts; that you perfectly fit the definition of a fanboy.

For me running motor sport is not the job of the president of the FIA. Sport should be run by FISA but Max closed it down to prevent someone using the FISA presidency to launch a bid for his job. FISA must be re-instated.

Max has been a disaster as president and I don’t see that there can be many worse people for the job. I saw a week ago that Ari Vatenen was quoted as being interested in it. Assuming Jackie Stewart is not simply being politically expedient when he says he doesn’t want it Ari would be my choice. He has everything you would want in a president. He is a 42 carat legend. A driver in the Colin McRae mould. He is an accomplished politician having been a member of the european parliament for a decade and in all the time I have been watching motor sport I have never heard anyone say anything negative about him other than he took to many risks behind the wheel like Colin, like Gilles.

I can’t help think Ari’s version of F1 will be better than Max’s tactical chess with push to pass and blatant bias. I can’t imagine Ari’s top priority will be Bernie’s bank balance but then I am sure Ari won’t benefit from Bernie’s bank balance in the way that Max has been rumoured to benefit.

Hands up everyone who believes Max moved to Monaco because of the european arrest warrant. Nobody. Not surprising as moving to Monaco would give him no immunity whatever. Another Max lie.

He can’t perform his job, and it is certainly questionable as to how well the FIA is able to perform their job.

I always thought that the British were somehow blessed with an inordinate sense of “good taste” and “fair play”, always following the rule that one’s own behavior should never negatively impact others.

Perhaps this is not true of all the Queen’s subjects?

I would love to hear why you think Max is the best person to lead the FIA.

I would love to read why he should re-negotiate a contract that is only a few years old. I would love to read why he is the only person to re-negotiate it when he disqualified himself from the original negotiations on the grounds of conflict of interest.

The scandal was not manufactured by others. Max was kind of central to it. And being involved in it affects his ability to do the job. He was banned from Bahrain. He has had to give away his official powers for Monaco and he refused to go to Spain to launch his racism campaign.

He is unable to function in the position of president of the FIA because of the scandal. Personally I would rather he had been removed for the lousy job he was doing or for the blatant bias he has been showing but I am happy to see him go as a result of his social activities.

For the past two months he has been campaigning to keep his job rather than getting on with the work of doing his job. Please tell me why he should stay.

There was nothing Nazi about it, no military uniforms (black leather is de rigueur S&M garb, but you probably know that), no swastikas, no Hitler salutes or mustaches. Max did nothing illegal and only consenting adults took part. The job of FIA president is to devise, administer and enforce the rules and regulations of motor sport, not act as a role model and/or guardian for society’s morals and ethics.

I fully agree with Alain Prost, whose thoughts on F1 I consider more cogent and relevant than yours – and many others on this blog – and who has urged FIA members to judge Mosley based on his ability to do his job and not on the sex scandal, a scandal manufactured not by Max but by others out to harm him by unscrupulous and dirty means. I would respect you more, Michael K, were you to be outraged by those who went out of their way to harm the FIA president, than attack the man who is the victim, not perpetrator, of a very ugly deed.