Zoom Harsh words appear again

Peace arrived last Wednesday, but the declaration was too soon: Formula One is almost back at war.

On one side, Max Mosley is stridently threatening to tear up the accord with the eight rebel FOTA members if its leader Luca di Montezemolo does not retract comments made in the wake of their Paris handshake.

The FIA President considers that FOTA steered the media into believing the F1 teams' alliance had won the war while Mosley retreated.

But in light of Mosley's latest interview, the new divide might be too wide.

"Within the motor sport world nobody takes him seriously," Mosley said of di Montezemolo, the Formula One Teams Association chairman, Ferrari President and Fiat chairman.

"He's seen as what the Italians call a 'bella figura' (style over substance). He's chairman of Fiat but the serious individual who runs it is Sergio Marchionne, and I don't suppose he takes much notice of Luca," he told the Daily Mail.

Mosley said F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone must also be enraged.

"He started life selling cars and one of his sayings is, 'Once you've sold the car, stop talking'. What Luca did was worse; not only did he not stop talking, but he talked stupidly," Mosley added.

Publicly, FOTA is saying very little, but the tension and high stakes remain.

A source for the teams association - which has Ferrari, Renault, BMW, Toyota, McLaren, Brawn, Red Bull and Toro Rosso as its members - said FOTA expects Mosley to stick to the peace accord.

"If he doesn't, then we'll see what our options are, but at this stage we are treating what he has said as polemics," the source told The Times.

Meanwhile, a report in The Guardian said the rebel teams are preparing to protest the involvement of Alan Donnelly, Mosley's right-hand man at Grand Prix, in the new Manor team.

Manor involves Mosley's former Simtek colleague Nick Wirth, and the British newspaper said F1 chief steward Donnelly's company is engaged in public relations for the team.

Donnelly is also accused of escorting a Manor executive around a recent European F1 paddock, but a source close to him denies he has any "direct involvement" with the team.

Thnings are evidently far from settled in the FIA-FOTA confrontation.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM