Mosley continues di Montezemolo attacks

Posted on

| Written by

Former FIA president Max Mosley has continued his haranguing of Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo.

Mosley told the Daily Mail di Montezemolo urged him to ban double diffusers when the legality of the devices was being investigated last year:

Luca does have this silly idea that if it is Ferrari then it is OK. When we had all this stuff about the double-diffuser he was on the phone every day saying, “You have got to sort out the Court of Appeal and make sure we win”.

He didn’t put it as baldly as that but that is what he said. I said, “Luca, I’m sorry but first of all they wouldn’t take any notice and secondly I am not going to do it”. I couldn’t. He took that quite personally. He honestly thought I would.
Max Mosley

The double diffusers, which Ferrari did not have, were declared legal. But earlier this year the FIA decided to ban them for 2011.

Mosley is understood to be writing a book covering his time as FIA president from 1991 to 2009.

Read more: Mosley attacks "weak" di Montezemolo

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

38 comments on “Mosley continues di Montezemolo attacks”

  1. I think that book will be quite an interesting read.

    1. i wouldn’t give the man a penny of my money – he’s a spoilt, pathetic little brat!

  2. Mosley’s book certainly will be an interesting one. Look for it in the fiction section of your local bookstore. :)

    1. or the spice up your sex life section

    2. Totally agree!!

  3. Mosley thinks if he keeps this c**p going he will be told he’s a very naughty boy and be given a good spanking. He really is becoming a very tiresome creature.It’s time to let go Max or everyone will forget the good you did do for the sport.

    1. Yeah yeah, we all hate Max Mosley. But why would he make this stuff up, it’s completley libellous, no laywer would protect you if you made this sort of thing up.

      An it does sound unfortunatley like something Monty would do, an we all know that Ferrari did, an although less so now, does have a slightly special relationship with the FIA.

      Thouroughly rotten man but you can’t dismiss what he said out of hand because it looks bad for your team.

      1. It’s got nothing to do with who you support. It’s about the way max conducts himself.
        Scribe, you put a lot of decent posts on this site but whenever the ‘F’ word is mentioned you lose the plot.
        Have you heard Luca attack Max or anyone on a weekly basis. Do you think other team bosses were not on the phone to the FIA about DD’s. The rules were weak and most of the teams tried to stop them being used.

        1. It would never go to court over something like this, libelous or not it’s not clear enough cut – and too much dirt would come out in the courts for either of them to risk (and di Mont has more to lose).

  4. Max and Luca are both as bad as each other. This is hardly cause for controvosy, we already know Ferrari wanted the DD banned and they had a good relationship with the FIA until the whole breakaway business.

  5. I’m going to support Mosley here, I hate di Montezemolo. I think he is such a selfish person.

    1. And Mosley is a bitter, naughty, unemployed old man looking for another spanking.

    2. oh, have you meet him then? You should share our personal experiance.

  6. “He didn’t put it as baldly as that but that is what he said”

    Someone either says something or doesn’t say it.
    Mosley should give us the facts, not use his interpretation to alter a person’s words

  7. I think that Montezemolo – love him or hate him – is simply lobbying, which is still a fair practice.

    1. That’s pretty much how I saw it.

      1. Agreed – I think Mosley is bitter about being made to leave in disgrace. He did well for the sport in early years, but later the power corrupted him. Hopefully Todt will not go down the same path.

        1. Bigbadderboom
          30th May 2010, 11:03

          Maybe I’m missing something, but all during his long long term as FIA president Mosley was always serving interests (Usually his own) or playing political games often to deflect attention from underlying issues elsewhere. What I don’t understand is why he continues these tactics. Is it simply to boost pre sales of his book? Or is he about to re-enter the FIA arena in some other capacity? There is no story here, which is the baffling thing, i’d be more suprised in Luca if he had done nothing to try and protect his teams interest, i’m sure as hell all at Brawn were doing all they could to prove the DD legality. Is Max trying to change the publics perception of him? I wouldnt worry about his book sales I’m sure it will fly off the shelves anyway, I know i’ll buy a copy even if only for comedy value!

          1. Mosley is just a frustrated old man trying to grab some late headlines. He’s an irrelevance. Ignore.

            On the subject of Diffusers…
            Brawn himself, as chairman of the Overtaking Working Group warned the FIA very early in 2008 that the DD rules were so wide open to interpretations that the FIA never intended, and that his own team of Honda ( as it then was ) had design plans to exploit the huge loopholes unless something was done to stop such designs immediately.

            The FIA virtually laughed him out of court, and the rest is history……

      2. I’m not so sure, to be honest. In theory, shouldn’t Max’s office be independent from the Court of Appeal? So there should nothing to lobby with Max there.

        1. That said, what’s Max’s point? That’s all in the past. This is a poor attempt to get noticed again. He can’t believe F1 (including good pal Todt) has moved on without him.

          1. I second this, Journeyer.

    2. Spot on!! Just what I was going to say!!

  8. Sush Meerkat
    30th May 2010, 10:19

    I don’t know whats worst in F1 anymore, its either every several weeks having to listen to Mosley tell us something we already know or having to hear Mansell’s opinion.

  9. The lack of a clear rebuttal from Ferrari says all we need to know here. At the same time, Mosely is a walking caricature – if he was so appalled by this sort of thing, why didn’t he say it at the time? Because under his reign, that’s how the FIA functioned; not as a transparent governing body, but as an old boys club where things got done through hush hush personal interventions. Thing is Both Max and Luca are members of this club and this sort of thing is just a little vendetta as payback for personal grievances.

    Things seem to be going in the right direction under Todt, now as soon as we’re rid of that other old boy, Bernie…

    1. Question is of course, how do we replace Bernie? Todt seems to be managaing him pretty well actually.

      But the commercial rights holder needs to be working for the teams an the fans. CVC has to be cut right out. Some sort of premiership like arrangement.

  10. I really don’t like Montezemolo, but I’d be more surprised if he hadn’t tried to influence Mosly on this.

    If Mosley wants to come out with any dirt on Ferrari then it will have to be about their annual 80 million bonus and their veto on regulation changes. That’s where the real embarassment is.

    1. Is it really? – all the other teams knew about it. Also Ferrari never used their veto, even when the rules were changed to disadvantage them specifically.

      The bonus was to tempt ferrari to be the first to sign up to the concord agreement. As much as anti-Ferrari supporters refuse to acknowledge it, the FIA knows that F1 without Ferrari is not F1.

      1. Yes DASMAN really, don’t know how firm the bonus story is, but if it, an we the known veto story are true, it’s an absolute disgrace. Totaly unfair, completeley unsporting, horrific for the rest of the teams, especially the smaller teams. 80mil down an all Ferrari is doing is taking part.

        No team should be able to influence the rules apart from at least a majority of the others.

        An i’m very tired of this idea that F1 without Ferrari is not F1, not only does it work in the opposite direction to just as great an extent, not only is it not really true when you think about it, it’s Ferrari propaganda! The only part of the sport that benefits from people saying that is Ferrari, so of course they say it, an of course there fans repeat it for them.

        1. I’ll second everything Scribe said, No team is above the rules.

        2. Yep….Ferrari is such a common name that it’s the equivalent of Smith or Jones in Italy…

          ….just imagine an F1 commentator….

          ‘and here comes Schumaker driving his
          magnificent, bright red SMITH to yet
          another victory….!’

          Wouldn’t have quite the same ring about
          it, would it ?

  11. I’d personally like an investigative book written by a third party which has no bias for or against Mosley. Could be interesting

  12. Uncle Mo was right and Lou is wrong.
    I will buy Mosley´s book.

    Another book that I would buy is Bernie´s guide to a long fit life.

  13. I hope Mosely gets them that got him! I would pay money to support him.

  14. To be honest I think they are both as bad as each other. This whole argument back and forth is both petty, and detrimental to the sport as a whole.

    I won’t buy his book, I’d by a book that I’d like to read and by an author I respect…. Something with a sock perhaps.

  15. Prisoner Monkeys
    30th May 2010, 15:49

    I have to say, I wouldn’t put it past Ferrari to attempt this. In fact, I’d say it warrants investigation. However, given the Ferrari-Mosley dispute of the past few months, Max is now not so muc coming off as noble as he is b-i-t-c-h-y.

    1. he wouldn’t be doing his job properly if he wasn’t lobbying for his teams position. F1 is worth millions of dollars, they don’t go out there each weekend, hold hands and sing kumbaya – it is a cut-throat business in a competitive world.

  16. tut tut tut, boys boys boys…

Comments are closed.