Mosley set to depart as F1 find peace formula

MAX MOSLEY’S 16 years as president of the FIA are poised to draw to a close after one of the most dramatic u-turns seen in Formula One.

Since announcing at the end of April a voluntary £40 million (€47.1m) budget cap would come into force from next year, Mosley has belligerently stood his ground for the last two months.

It came to the point where, during the course of the British Grand Prix weekend, the sport faced the serious threat of fracturing in two as the Formula One Teams’ Association announced their intention to set up a rival series.

Arguably surprised by the defiance of the eight members of FOTA, Mosley has been forced into a climbdown to such an extent he will not now stand for re-election for a fifth term in office.

The concessions are sweeping as FOTA have the change in governance they demanded, there will be no cap for 2010 as the rules for this season will remain for next, and a new Concorde Agreement – the commercial document that governs the sport – will come into effect.

From Mosley’s perspective, he has the three new teams he wanted on the grid next year, with the trio to be given technical assistance from the current teams to aid their induction into F1, and there will also be a reduction in spending to the levels last seen in the early 1990.

The war is over, peace has broken out, and it is fair to assume it is the teams who will privately claim victory, most notably with regard to Mosley’s departure, a man viewed as authoritarian and dictatorial.

“There will be no split. There will be one championship in 2010, which is something we’d all hoped for,” said Mosley, even though his initial budget cap plans would have resulted in a two-tier championship.

Despite a letter yesterday to all FIA members insisting he would be willing to stand for re-election in the wake of the teams’ “attack” on the Federation, Mosley claims he has jumped, and was not pushed.

“My departure was planned, agreed, arranged – all the staff have known for months.

At the heart of brokering a deal between the FIA and FOTA has been F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, hardly surprising given he faced the prospect of seeing his £1.5billion per year empire crumble.

Ecclestone effectively knocked the heads together of Mosley and Luca di Montezemolo during talks on Tuesday night and yesterday claimed “common sense had prevailed”.

Despite seeing off Mosley, Ferrari president and FOTA chairman Di Montezemolo refused to gloat as he said: “He has done a very good fix of the problem.”

A planned FOTA meeting today in Bologna, initially designed to rubber-stamp the rival series, will still go ahead, with the teams instead planning for their future in F1 for at least the next three years as they have agreed to sign up through to 2012.