The Gravel Trap: Max Mosley's Legacy

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Londoner
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The Gravel Trap: Max Mosley's Legacy

Post by Londoner »

Evening everyone

In another topical Gravel Trap, Klon has tackled the legacy of the late Max Mosley, which, in light of recent events in Baku, is a very timely reappraisal. Have a gander this evening!

Max Mosley's Legacy
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
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Rob Dylan
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Re: The Gravel Trap: Max Mosley's Legacy

Post by Rob Dylan »

Agreed with the timeliness of this piece. Not only is it possibly your best Gravel Trap to date Klon, I would also say that it its timing, and indeed the timing of Max Mosley's death, has shed some light on just how much different things are now from when his tenure as a dictatorship was in full swing.

Whilst he did operate on the verge of tyranny on his worst days, on his best it was he who made it known what F1's place was, what its raison d'être was. Mosley had the leadership skills that Todt and Masi don't, and the slow decline of safety standards and the seemingly complete lack of direction of "what F1 is" and "what we want F1 to be tomorrow, in five years, in ten years, in the context of a changing world" seems to be falling back for standing still, and as a result there has been a post-Baku worry (at least here on our forum) that F1 was regressing back to a prior age of carelessness.

I think in the simplest terms I agree with your basic point, that it is leadership and authority that F1 lacks as much as it does other things. Todt was never up to the job and never seemed to want to be, other than for the delicious three-course meal every day and the trillion dollar payout every year.
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Re: The Gravel Trap: Max Mosley's Legacy

Post by yannicksamlad »

Thanks for this article: great stuff.
The issues about monopolies, commercial rights, sports authorities and European law are possibly beyond my comprehension, but I understand the FIA was under pressure to split off the commercial rights, so I find it hard to criticize Max on that.
I do agree with the main thrust of the analysis and Rob's comments; having Max in the FIA with his capacity for taking a stand for values that I essentially agreed with meant that I appreciated him. And I think he also contributed so much in his other involvement in motorsports. Admirable, if not always likeable.
I started supporting Emmo in 1976 (3 points )....missed 75, 74, 73, 72...
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