Zoom A dual role for Alan Donnelly?

In a brief rejoinder, F1's governing body has rejected suggestions that a high-ranking FIA official should be stepped down for behaving inappropriately.

The latest issue amid the current political crisis, sparked by yet another leaked letter, revealed that the F1 teams alliance FOTA believes Max Mosley's right hand man at races displayed a conflict of interest at the recent Turkish Grand Prix.

The letter said it was inappropriate for Alan Donnelly, also head of the three race stewards, to actively seek the FOTA members to abandon their stance and sign up for the 2010 world championship, before attempting to act impartially in the stewards' room.

FOTA also said in the letter that Donnelly tried to "create division" within FOTA by "misrepresenting the positions" of teams in discussions at Istanbul.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the FIA responded by saying: "We utterly reject the suggestion in the correspondence received."

The next explosive deadline is Friday, the first day of practice at Silverstone, by which the FIA wants the five teams listed as provisional on the 2010 entry list to have signed up officially.

"The newspapers are going to be full of all that nonsense, when it should be about Button and the drivers competing in the British Grand Prix," Mark Webber said in his latest BBC column.

E.A. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM