Grand Prix Rejects

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/forme ... 1/6514921/

He was a controversial figure during his tenure on the top. But his work towards safety in motorsport after Imola 1994 was incredible.

Not sure how to remember Max, to be honest. Definitely helped shape F1 as we know it but it was a pretty ignoble exit from the sport.

I read his obituary on the BBC, and there were a couple of interesting things of note that I didn't know or had missed over the years since his tenure as head of the FIA.

The most important thing for me was his insistence on pushing through a budget cap against the teams' wishes. A lot of the original anger with regards to reforming the ludicrous budgets by the top teams was aimed at Mosley. Once Mosley was gone, the top teams could just bathplug over the smaller teams and run F1 as their own cabal, as they have done for a decade now.

Whilst Mosley acted with tyranny much of the time, over a sport like F1 he was much needed to push through necessary change, even if it meant that the change might just be for The Show (TM). But as we have seen, F1 has pushed various gimmicks just as much as Mosley ever did, so it clearly wasn't just a him-problem.

I only hope the new FIA president can act above the teams rather than with them, as Todt has been spineless status quo since Day 1.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60919994

Holy fukcing sh1t

You're not wrong. I hate to see anyone go like that.

To reflect on his legacy in F1 a bit, I am not a fan of a lot of the things he did and how he did them, but he was absolutely right that the drivers and teams couldn't be responsible for safety and that it was the sport's responsibility instead. In fact, we're still fighting the attitude that "if the drivers don't like the danger, they should quit". We last saw a major instance of that with the advent of the halo device.

So credit where it's due, but opprobrium as well where it is due.