The Max Mosely scandal just continues to get more and more lurid every day. It continues to threaten the integrity of F1 and to a lesser degree motor sports in general. Now it has been revealed that an MI5 officer has resigned because his wife was one of the prostitutes involved going by the name of ‘Mistress Abi’ in Max’s little sex game.

This week began with Radovan Novak withdrawing his earlier statement that McLaren and Ron Denis were behind a conspiracy against Mosely. now to top that, there are allegations that MI5 are involved and at the head of a conspiracy against Max Mosely.

Following an announcement that an MI5 officer’s wife was involved in the ’sex game’, the officer has resigned his position and MI5 has now been forced to deny these allegations. The statement from a spokesman for MI5 has denied his organization has any involvement with Max Mosely and went on to say that MI5 has high standards of behavior both in personal life and professional. He goes on to say that when an officer falls below these standards, action will be taken.

An internal MI5 investigation is trying to establish whether the officer knew his wife was involved in prostitution and whether he was involved in her business affairs. If it is discovered that he knew and was involved, we face another year of ugly politics taking away from what really matters; the racing. That alone disgusts me.

Add to all this, the statement in the letter Max Mosely wrote that says:

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Now that Super Aguri have withdrawn from F1, qualifying has been altered to reflect 2 less cars.

Today the FIA have confirmed that 5 cars will be eliminated in both Q1 and Q2 to even things out so that 10 cars remain and challenge for pole in Q3. The sporting regulations were initially written for a field of 24 cars with a plan B if the field dropped to 22. Now that the field is officially 20 cars, plan C had to be written.

The statement from the FIA was this:

“The Stewards, having received a report from the Technical Delegate note that 20 cars will participate in the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix.

“Therefore under article 33.1 of the 2008 Sporting Regulations, the Stewards have decided that only five cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 of the Qualifying Practice.”

That’s the news, and now the weather:

Tags: f1 qualifying, fia, grand prix weather, turkish grand prix

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One again the safety car rules ‘bit’ another driver and most likely cost him good championship points.
When Heikki Kovalainen speared off the track in his dramatic crash, the rescue and on scene medical treatment caused quite a lengthy safety car period where the pit entrance was closed to drivers. Nick Heidfeld whose race strategy had him ready to pit at that time was now forced to stay on the track with little but fumes in his car. To avoid running out of gas, he did pit and was forced to take a 10 second stop and go penalty and in the process, throw away possibly a good finish with good championship points.

The safety car rules regarding pit stops during a safety car period were first raised in Australia this year when Rubens Barrichello had the same issue and was forced to pit during the safety car period and take a 10 second stop and go penalty.

Well, the wheels of F1 rule changes sometimes turn very slowly and in the case of the safety car rules, slowly is the word and the current rules most likely won’t be changed in any form before the end of the year. This issue is on the agenda for the next sporting working group, but likely that will be just talk.

I do agree that any changes need to be thought through carefully and all angles looked at thoroughly. Safety is the number one issue. The safety car is to ensure the cars are slowed down and no one races by the yellow area to get to the pits and gain an advantage. Any rule changes must ensure this safety measure remains, but also that all loopholes teams can jump through to gain an advantage are closed.

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Two on track problems have raised their heads this year and one for now has been resolved. The first, driving slowly on in-laps during qualifying to save fuel. The other is the time the pits are closed when the safety car is out.

Australia is where crap hit the fan. Rubens Barrichello had to enter the pits when closed or run out of fuel, and Heikki Kovalainen dropped places because he had to delay his stop. Some say he had locked up a podium finish until the delayed stop. F1 teams calculate just about everything that is possible to calculate in a race plan, but can’t calculate when a crash will occur and the safety car appear, so why should drivers/teams be penalized simply because a crash occurs?

For safety’s sake, a rule must be in place somewhere. Rescue vehicles and people on track with F1 cars flying around at full speed to get to the pits makes no sense, but neither does penalizing a driver who is almost out of fuel, or pit strategy thrown out the window tossing a driver back a few places.

There have been positive discussions with the FIA and now it’s time to take concerns to Charlie Whiting, race director. This meeting will now take place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

My take has always been to just have the entire incident area a ‘yellow’ area and give it a wide berth. It has always made sense to me. Let the drivers drive fast everywhere else (out of sight, out of mind) and pit when they want to without compromising safety and without the possibility of drivers getting a stupid penalty.

Mark Webber:

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I and a lot of bloggers have deliberately stayed away from the scandal surrounding Max Mosley and justifiably so, but curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see just what evidence there is supporting the allegations against Mosley. Yes, I watched the video and no, there isn’t a link to it from here. Although the video has been heavily edited and shortened, Mosley is in the video and it’s *&^%#.

Political figures and celebrities alike have been damned for a lot of issues. If someone, even with no real evidence is able to start a rumor, your career is really tarnished forever even when the rumor isn’t true. There will always be a question surrounding them and trust is gone.

Almost every day one organization or another has turned their back on Mosley from the day this story broke and it’s stunning how far down the chain the fallout actually is. 6 or so months ago I dropped into one of the large local CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) offices for a particular map and noticed there was a framed poster of the FIA logo on the wall behind the main reception. On Monday I stopped in again to the same office and this time noticed that same picture was on the floor leaning on a wall in a corner and had been replaced by a picture of the AAA logo. They could have just decided to make a change, but I thought I’d ask a manager if this had anything to do with Max Mosley. He said yes, it’s the ‘Max Factor’ and went on his way.

I must say I was shocked that the fallout from this scandal had reached this far down the chain.

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I have deliberately stayed away from the ‘racial’ issue surrounding Lewis Hamilton and with good reason; that’s not what F1 is about. However, the verbal bombs being thrown by press, FIA officials, track officials etc. amount to nothing more than political jousting and will solve nothing. How is it that this issue, an issue not new to Spain and other parts of the world, continues to be a political problem and not an ethical one.

I don’t wish to annoy anyone, but the racial obscenities thrown at Lewis Hamilton were to be expected as soon as he appeared in Spain for testing. The Spanish are very passionate about their sports including soccer, cycling and of course F1. If you have ever watched the Tour de France wind it’s way through Basque country or even near the northern Spanish border, you are all too familiar with the taunts and racial slurs thrown at the riders. Examples such as these can be substantiated and have been substantiated by other visiting athletes in other sports as well.

I’m not trying to take on the entire country of Spain, but I am taking on the fact that the ‘racial’ issue is the way some really ignorant fans express themselves. When the 2007 season came to a close and Fernando Alonso signed with Renault, the excuse to verbally abuse Lewis Hamilton was there. I expected this, and the FIA, Spanish officials, and track officials clearly did or they had their heads under a rock. This type of behavior following what some Spanish fans feel is disrespecting their sports icons they live for is ‘normal’ for them and has been allowed to continue. For racial comments to be allowed to be written in the Spanish sports daily Marca is an example and highlights my point.

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It’s official, minus one driver. The FIA has released the official drivers lineup for 2008. Despite Super Aguri not yet officially naming Anthony davidson and Takuma Sato as their 2008 drivers, they do appear on the FIA entry list. Because of the McLaren DQ from the constructors championship last season, they get the last 2 numbers.

Tags: 2008 f1 drivers lineup, F1 2008, fia

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