Despite talk last year that he would probably not stand for another term, FIA President Max Mosley now claims that in the eyes of some - mainly FIA members - it is vital he remains at the helm.

At the height of last year's sex scandal, when it was claimed he had brought the sport into disrepute, Mosley indicated that he would stand down at the end of his current term and not stand for re-election when the time came in October. However, bolstered by his victory in the courts, his pursuit of those that set him up and the current desire to sweep dirt under the carpet as quickly as possible, the Englishman has said that it is likely he will serve another term.

"I don't want to go on for too long," he told the BBC, "but the difficulty the teams are putting me in is that even if I wanted to stop in October, they are making it very difficult for me to do so.

"Everything they are doing is counterproductive," he continued. "The people in the FIA are saying to me, 'We've all this trouble, we're being attacked. You must stay'.

In true Mosley style, which, if nothing else, has to be admired for its outrageous audacity, even though we've seen it all before, he added: "Whereas if we didn't have this and we had peace and I said I'd actually like to stop in October, they wouldn't really mind and someone else would come along. I'd be much more likely to step down if there was peace because I am nearly 70."

Other than the budget cap and the new rules, the teams are deeply unhappy about Mosley's governance of the sport, tired of his dictatorial, confrontational approach. However, the Englishman, who has been President of the FIA since 1993, insists that he is not the problem, dismissing the claim as a "complete myth", even though more and more members of the media are finally standing up to be counted and criticising him, despite the threat of having their accreditation withdrawn.

"I'm really not the issue," he said. "What it is is that they want to take over the governance of the sport from the FIA and have it themselves, and then they want to take over the money from Bernie and have that for themselves.

"The first thing they have to do is get rid of me, but then whoever replaced me would be exactly the same. He would defend the interests of the FIA because the championship belongs to them."

"They are not confronting any individual, they're confronting an organisation, challenging the governing body of motor sport, but they will not succeed."