02/07/2004
NEWS STORY
Q. (Alan Henry - Guardian) Max could I ask you when you actually made the decision?
Max Mosley: Yes I started thinking seriously about a year ago. Obviously you can't stop immediately after…two years is the minimum if you are elected for four years. I started thinking about it a year ago, I decided in the spring time this year that 2005 would be it, I wouldn't stand again although there had been some suggestion that I might. Then in the last four weeks, I thought once I have done the AIT thing if I can find a way of doing the Formula One then I should stop and the real decision was made about three weeks ago.
Q. (Peter Windsor) Max can I ask a couple of questions….in fact about four questions?
MM: One at a time because I'm getting a bit Alzheimers.
Q. Point well taken about the 120 seconds and the resuscitation. But as I understand it, and this may be wrong, it took the A&E car, the Accident & Emergency car, one minute 39 seconds to get to Ralf, which left 21 seconds to do something. Are you comfortable with that amount of time or was there something wrong there?
MM: Slight misunderstanding. The car has to get there within two minutes. You've got to get his circulation within three to four minutes, but the magic period for us is two minutes. So if you take a long circuit like Spa in the worst possible conditions you've got to locate your cars so that in no more than two minutes the doctors, the resuscitation doctor is there. So we were 21 seconds to the good in fact.
Q: So that was as planned? You were comfortable with that?
MM: Yes.
Q: (Peter Windsor) Were you comfortable with not stopping the race when Ralf had his accident? A couple of the doctors have said having cars go past a reasonably high-speed, Grand Prix drivers not have much feel for slow speeds was not a good thing…
MM: A couple of doctors I mean…I think one or two of the American doctors said things, for example the cars were not deployed in time - of course they were deployed instantly. And then I have to say on the American doctors I find it surprising that having taken Ralf Schumacher to hospital, which is a very famous one, examined his thoroughly, it is not until he gets back to Germany that he discovers he has two fractures of the spine.
Q. (Peter Windsor) The Juan Pablo Montoya incident you've explained accurately, but why was no information put on the screens earlier to say that he was under investigation, maybe from lap two or three onwards so we at least had some idea that this was going on?
MM: The answer is because that only goes on the screen once the matter goes to the stewards. Had all the evidence been gathered and had it been clear that he was within the time it wouldn't have gone to the stewards. It only goes to the stewards once Charlie is satisfied that there is something wrong. That is the moment when it appears on screens. The investigation starts, in fact as far as we are concerned, when it goes to the stewards otherwise every time Charlie was thinking about something you would have to put it up on screen, which would obviously be a nonsense.
Q. (Peter Windsor) And finally why have the regulation changes to qualifying not taking place from Silverstone onwards?
MM: Because there were not 18 votes in the Formula One Commission in favour of doing so. There were two conditions to get that done. One was the teams had to be unanimously in favour and there was a piece of paper with all the teams signatures on it, then it goes to the Formula One Commission because what the Concorde Agreement actually says is that the FIA can change the regulations if the teams are unanimously agreed. Well, assuming they were unanimously agreed it goes to the Formula One Commission but the Formula One Commission requires 18 out of 26 votes to carry something and as I recall it was about 12. It was not 18 therefore it didn't go through.
Q. (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News) You say that the people in the FIA want you to say, there is a lot of in this paddock and press room that would like you to stay. Is there anything that would make you change your mind?
MM: You are very, very kind and I much appreciate that. I am not a Formula One team principal so I don't change my mind every few minutes (laughter)
Q. (Matt Bishop - F1 Racing) Max bearing in mind the seriousness of the Ralf Schumacher accident and for that matter of the Felipe Massa accident a week before, could you outline for us the procedure via which Ralf will be declared fit by the FIA to race again in Formula One…
MM: Yes. First of all thank you for reminding me about Massa because although those accidents are not evidence we are relying on for the safety measures we are about to introduce, they are nevertheless indicators. The Felipe Massa accident was a 113g, which is absolutely enormous, and had he not had all the latest gear on including the HANS system, the accident data recorder indicates that he would have hit the steering wheel with a force about 80 percent greater than we believe to be the borderline for injury. In the case of Ralf Schumacher it was 78g which is still an enormous impact. The answer to your actual question is that he would first of all obviously be examined by his own doctors and passed fit and would then have to be examined by the FIA doctors and everything being equal that is Sid Watkins makes sure he is alright. There is never contention about that, the doctors always seem to agree when the time has come.
Q. Max you spelled out how the process will go along in terms of the Technical Working Group and all the rest of it over a period of time. If they come up with some proposals, who and how will it be decided whether those proposals, to use your terms, good enough?
MM: It is decided by the FIA in the sense of the…not the Formula One Commission and the usual processes. What that would mean in effect would be that our technical people, are Formula One technical people, would obviously then put a vote to World Council because they are the ultimate arbiters. But I think the chance of teams agreeing on measure where eight of them are prepared to subscribe to them are extremely remote on past experience. It would be extremely strange if they did.
Q. (Ray Matts - Daily Mail) Max you've indicated your frustration with team principals over changes that you have tried to implement. Has that had an effect on your decision to retire early and what are your concerns about the future of Formula One if the team principals can't agree on some package to improve the show?
MM: The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second question that happily under these procedures that I've outlined under the Concorde Agreement they don't need to agree. It is a new clause in the Concorde Agreement that was introduced in the '98 agreement following the problems we had when Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed and it enables us, if we believe that the cars are unacceptably fast to require them to produce measures and if they fail to produce measures to impose them ourselves. So I think what we have been saying earlier on it is very unlikely that they would agree on measures that were acceptable because it needs eight of them to agree. That means we are going to impose measures and what we are doing to try to be helpful is we are telling them the measures that we would eventually impose if that is what happened.
Q. (Mike Doodson) Max I wonder if I could take you back to the Ralf incident because it is becoming clear that concussion can have a profound and prolonged effect on a drivers efficiency. In Ralf's case he had a similar crash last year at Monza in testing and the evidence indicates that it wasn't until this year's Canadian Grand Prix 10 months later that he was back on the form that we knew he was capable of. It also seems that after the Monza accident Ralf bamboozled Sid Watkins into letting him run in one practice session, after which he withdrew. I wonder if you feel that there is a case for deeper investigation into drivers after they have suffered a head injury, which might actually help to protect them from themselves.
MM: There may well be a case. I'm not actually qualified to answer. I don't know where physical medicine stops and psychological medicine begins in that area. I really don't know enough to answer. But it is a point worth putting to the medical people. Certainly out primary concern is that the driver should be a danger to himself or to others. Whether he has reached his normal level of performance is of course a completely separate question that's really between him and the team. It is probably that if you ask Sid you will get a much better response than from me.
Q. What will happen about the president vacancy? Will a president be named for a year as an interim or will an election be anticipated?
MM: The answer is that at the General Assembly in October where I step down, there will be an election for the vacant post of president. It's any vacancy in the committee or the presidency, any of the offices of the FIA, is filled by election. There will be an election of the entire body and they will decide if there is more than one candidate there will be a vote.
Q. Second question, you were part of the process of establishing the current system in Formula One, a system which gave a lot of power to the teams - much more than in any sport. Was it a mistake?
MM: At the time working for the teams it was very good. But I think from the point of view of the governing body and also Formula One in general, I wouldn't go so far as saying it was a mistake but I think it has become obsolete. My personal opinion is that what you need, and I know I have said this before, you need an honest, competent, disinterested governing body that are not hampered in what do. One shouldn't continually have to find ingenious ways of bringing regulations in or have to wait, as we have now, until there is a serious safety problem before you can do something. But at the time it was necessary to bring some sort of stability because the people running the FIA at that time didn't all have a very thorough knowledge of what was necessary and what was possible in Formula One. Some of the teams might say that is still the case but I don't agree.
Q. Max since your discomfort seems to originate from the behaviour of the team principals, are you thinking of retaining a role maybe in a different structure with the roads and safety campaign? And can you name any possible successor for the FIA?
MM: As to a possible successor, I think there are probably a number of people who see themselves as a possible successor and I would probably cause deep offence if I were to name one or two of the three people that I thought the most likely, which I certainly don't want to do as you understand. On the question of what I'm going to do, once I stop I won't do very much. I'd liked to be involved in road safety and so on to some extent. I don't want to work as hard as I have been working. One of the things that people probably don't appreciate…it looks as though one goes around in the jets and the limos but the real job is you get into office about 9 o'clock in the morning and you work solidly until about 7 o'clock in the evening. And that is somebody who works quickly, in fact too quickly because I don't read things properly sometimes. It is massively hard work because it is all of the road side, all of the racing side and endless difficulties. Quarrels in countries about who has the sporting power, it is absolutely never ending, and there is a certain point you start thinking there is probably more to life than this and also you feel that if you are losing interest a bit you don't perform well if you are not 100 percent engaged. But it is very hard work.
Q. (Jonathan Noble - Autosport) You talked about renewing your crusade to cut speeds in Formula One but there is still urgent calls for cost-cutting that needs to be done before teams or manufacturers pull out. Have you now given up on that because of the inability of the teams to agree on anything or will there be a final push?
MM: It is a happy by-product of the move to the 2.4 reducing the power that it will also very significantly reduce the costs of the engines because of one the problems with the engines is the way the power goes up each year. If you recall we were all told back in '94 when we went down from 3.5 litres to 3 litres after the Senna and Ratzenberger fatalities, we were told you will never see more than 600-650 horsepower - 650 is the absolute limit, law of physics and so on. Well, of course, now we are over 900 and there is this sort of four percent increase each year. If you greatly restrict the areas in which they can operate, if you eliminate the exotic materials, if you specify the dimensions of the large numbers of significant elements of the engine then you cut down the area of research and that does two things. One it reduces the amount of horsepower gained per dollar spent and secondly it reduces the incentive to spend large number of dollars. Put another way, if you think of it as a graph or performance against cost you want the slope to be almost flat if you possibly can so the difference between the man spending a fortune and the man not spending a fortune is very small. Otherwise it becomes a money-spending competition arguably now it just about is and we've got to stop that. In fact the two things work together on the engines. What we are proposing on the tyres will also have the benefit of reducing costs in all sorts of ways and I think if we bring in certain restrictions on the chassis, which we are doing, it will cut down the amount of research and development needed in wind tunnel. One day, if I was still in charge, I would attack that whole wind tunnel-aerodynamic thing because it is incredibly expensive, but you can't do everything at once. The other great expense is testing, that really the teams have got to try and reach an agreement and if they don't they will be putting themselves in great difficulty. I think they are very close to doing that so I am optimistic there.
Q. When last you addressed the press in Monaco you indicated your confidence in lifting the 48 million dollar bond. What progress has been made in that direction?
MM: The answer is none. It would be a matter for the Formula One Commission and they would have to vote, but it is only a sporting rule and it could be changed by majority in the Formula One Commission. What that really comes down to is half the teams plus the organisers. But I am very optimistic we will see at least two new teams in Formula One, we can only see two because we only have two vacancies, by 2006 and they to will benefit from the possibility of having a limited V10 3-litre if they can't get a 2.4 at that time, which will reduce the costs.
Q. (Joe Saward) Max there were some proposals going to the General Assembly about changing the structure of the FIA presidency role. What happened to those? And secondly, can you explain what happened to the vote about karting in the World Motor Sport Council?
MM: The change that was suggested to the statutes was that at the moment we have a president of the whole FIA, we then have a deputy president for the mobility, the road car side, and deputy president for sport. I suggested to them after I have gone that they might be better off having a president overall and deputy president for sport…really Baleste was the first person who held both offices and then I held both offices, but we also built the twin pillar structure. But the classic FIA structure was you had a president and a president for sport, like Baleste was in those days. There was Metternich and (UJER ????) and then Mettenich was president of sport and I think Baumgartner was president of the whole FIA, the was a whole history of it. It was just a question of going back to that structure. Well the sport people all started writing to me saying well if we do that it may happen it would be difficult, if not impossible, for somebody from the sport to be elected president of the FIA. That certainly wasn't the intention and I don't think it would have been the effect but once I got those letters I wrote to everybody saying it is not a problem, if you have got better ideas we will withdraw it and that's what we did. We said to the General Assembly with the agreement of the senate, I think it was, we are going to withdraw that proposal. I think most of them were quite content to leave it as it is and the president can decide how much he delegates to each of the two deputy presidents. End of problem. The vote on the karting was quite funny actually because what has unfortunately happened with karting is that the FIA has largely lost control of it because it is not terribly well managed and we had a working group trying to come up with measures to try to improve the situation and get it back under control and have both two-stroke and four-stroke engines inside the FIA. When it came to vote a large numbers of members of the World Council didn't want to do that, they wanted to stay with the existing structure. I've seen it reported in the press as something of significance, which it isn't. It is completely trivial matter. There was only one vote in the World Council on 30 June that mattered and that was the vote in favour giving notice to the Technical World Group that we have got to do something. Fortunately, that was unanimous.
Q. (Alan Henry) What is the likelihood of your successor as FIA president having the same close relationship with Mr Ecclestone that you have had over the last 30 years?
MM: I think probably very remote. We've known each other all that time and done all sorts of things together which almost by definition nobody else has done. On other hand Bernie is very friendly with a lot of people in the FIA and I'm sure could work very satisfactorily together with a number of them. Probably not the same sort of thing with them the same sort of jokes that we share but apart from that would probably work very well indeed.
Q. (Kevin Eason - The Times) Two questions. Having seen a number of these guys up close for a number of years, where you constantly surprised that 10 multi-millionaires who employed hundreds of people could not agree on anything?
MM: It is very surprising actually. Very surprising indeed. What one has to bear in mind is that they have all become rich extremely rich because the board on which they play has been arranged by some else. I can say this now because I'm on my way soon. Bernie has created a monopoly board for them to play on where the money is just enormous and they have made huge sums of money. But fundamentally they are not businessmen and they are not trying to make money, they just long to win races. I can name two of them who are businessmen, and successful businessmen, but the overall atmosphere there is I just want to win the race, so if I've got 50 million dollars sponsorship I'll spend 51 and borrow a million. They don't think I've got 50 million sponsorship, I'll spend 40 and put 10 in my pocket. They just don't think in those terms. Some of them have been made rich despite themselves because they have been given so much money they couldn't actually manage to spend it. It is not a deliberate business strategy, shall we put it like that. So when we get into a room, they all sit there and each one is thinking about their current car and defend it to the death and that is why you need the disinterested body that tries to be fair between everybody and sort the problems out. It is just hopeless trying to get them all to agree because they have their vested interests to defend.
Q. (Kevin Eason) The second question is that you are leaving at a critical time in the history of Formula One. Are you optimistic about the future or do you fear it is facing challenges that it maybe can't overcome?
MM: No, I'm very optimistic. In a sense I'm leaving at a critical time, but in leaving I'm doing what has to be done. As it happens they've opened the door because they increased the performance to such a point where we are fully entitled to take drastic measures and those will solve the problems. What will happen is the engines will be cheaper, the cars will be slower, the power will be less, the aerodynamics will come under control, the racing will get better because the tyres will be much harder, it will be possible to run off line, the braking distances will increase because there will be less grip, there will be all sorts of side benefits come from that. The aerodynamics will be such as apart from reducing the speeds of the cars in the fast corners and ensuring they don't go faster on the straight, they will also be conducive to overtaking and closer racing. Taking all those things together I'm optimistic for the future, I think it will be very successful, I think we will get two new teams, I think two or three engine manufacturers, once they see these changes are happening, won't leave, because in the end all we are doing is putting greater emphasis on brain work and reducing the emphasis on money. There will be talk of leaving, but take no notice it won't happen. I'm very optimistic, it is completely set on the right path but this drastic, and make no mistake it is drastic what we are about to do, are necessary but once they've been done they thing will be set on a sensible course and we have to hope that we are not unlucky between now and when these measures take effect and have a serious accident. Unfortunately that can happen because we can never eliminate the danger. We are pulling the probability back but it will not be until the beginning of 2006 that these can take full effect when the engine with less power comes in.
Q. If you introduce a V8 engine will it be a one-weekend engine, a two-weekend engine or will they be allowed to change as they were in the past?
MM: It would be a two race engine, I'm sorry I should have said that. So we have a two- race engine in 2005 and also the 2.4 V8 that comes in 2006 will be a two-race engine.
Q. And what about the tyre monopoly that you were talking about in Monte Carlo?
MM: I would like a tyre monopoly but we cannot see reason a reason to do introduce a tyre monopoly to reduce performance when we can do this by regulation. So we are going to reduce performance by regulation by making the tyres last longer, therefore they will be harder and so forth and if it doesn't work we would have to look at a monopoly. The best advice is it will be work and it would not be justified purely on those grounds to go to a single tyre.
Q. (Byron Young - Daily Mirror) Surely the point about Ralf Schumacher's accident was not that you got there within your own prescribed limit, but your guys didn't get there fast enough?
MM: Well the answer is it would have been much nicer to have got there in 20 seconds rather than 1minute 40 seconds but you have limited resources, so you would locate the cars around the circuit so that you could always get there within two minutes. On average you will always get there within one minute, but sometimes it will be more and sometimes less. But resources are limited to have an expert in resuscitation located to get there in 20 seconds. As it is not essential, what is essential is to get there in two minutes, then that is what we do. It looks unfortunate on television, but you have got to be practical, and the practical thing is to do what you have got to do and achieve what you need to achieve.
Q. (Byron Young) I assume following the drivers' heated feelings about that accident and the reaction time that there is some sort of investigation going on within the FIA and you are talking to drivers…
MM: There is nothing to investigate. The medical cars were deployed as soon as accident occurred. Everything worked according to plan. We always talk to the drivers, obviously I talk to Michael about it and he understood immediately. The discussion point that is still open is, and somebody raised this earlier, when do you red flag race? If you've got a certain amount of debris you obviously at certain level red flag a race. The primary source of information on that is the safety car driver and a good example of his intervention was the German Grand Prix two or three years ago when they had that start line accident that involved Michael Schumacher and the safety car was called out, it did a lap and set off on the second lap and the race was red flagged. Some of our friends thought that was because Schumacher was out of the race, the truth of it was that the safety car said that the line is in covered in chards and it would be dangerous and there was no choice. Every time there is any sort of coming together on the track, you get the slightest bump between two cars you get chards. You rely heavy on the safety car driver and also there is a back-up in that all the teams are talking to their drivers. All teams are talking to drivers in radio communications these days. We are looking at that are there any rules we can have, but each accident is different and somebody has to make a judgement. The other observation was that it would have been better to bring cars through the pit-lane in the case of Ralf Schumacher's accident and we are now looking at a procedure for doing that. We should improvise on the spot. Every time an incident happens we always learn something.
Q. (Jim Rosenthal - ITV) You laboured away in your job for 13 years, how would you want to be remembered?
MM: I would like to be remembered as someone who moved the agenda forward in motorsport as far as safety is concerned and repositioned the FIA as a major force in road cars, which is a fundamental purpose, and improved the safety of the everyday road user. I think in all modesty we can claim to have done that. It is 13 years that are worthwhile and enjoyable, meetings with the Formula One Commission apart, it has been fascinating and enormous privilege to do it. It is the most privileged position you can imagine. But you have to know when to stop and that moment is probably here.
Q. Do you really think that the 2.4 V8 is an adequate formula for the championship which is considered the pinnacle of motorsport and do you think we have to slow the cars down? I think we need more entertainment on track?
MM: On the first part, I do. Bear in mind when went to 3 litres we were told we would never go behind 650 but these 2.4's, even with dimensional restrictions we are going to put on, you are still going to get 700 horsepower. So that is a lot more than the absoloute maximum we saw in 1994. It is actually more than we had in Formula One until quite recently. It is only in the last six or seven years we have seen these over-700 horsepower come in. If you think back to early sixties, 200 horsepower would have been a very good engine in Formula One and the Cosworth engine went up to 450 and gradually up to 500. If you look at lap times seven years ago to now and you see a 7, 8, 9 seconds difference on a lap, it is completely mad. It is fast. Watching the cars you won't notice the difference, you will notice it in an accident. There is too much energy to dissipate and we are on the limit of safety precautions. What will do is reduce the probability that we will have a drive seriously injured or killed or even worse a member of the public a marshal. We've got to keep the cars under control.
Q: (James Allen - ITV) From what you've been saying here, we are clearly in the dying days of Formula One team owners having any kind of say over the rule-making process in Formula One. Now, after 2007, you made it clear after the Monaco meeting that you don't see there being any Concorde Agreement beyond the end of this one. What happens, then, between now and the end of 2007? To what degree will the team owners have any kind of say in rule changes? Second question: are you planning on writing your memoirs?
MM: The answer to the first question is that between now and 2007 the Concorde Agreement is fully in force. It's just that we are now going to have some massive changes to technical regulations because we need them because of the excessive performance of the cars so they will have an influence over the sporting rules. For example, take the famous qualifying, if we're going to have a new qualifying system for 2005 and I suspect we will, they will have to agree on that, but in the usual way. You need about half the teams, you need all the promoters and the other people on the Formula One Commission so they will continue to have a say. As far as I'm concerned, it won't be my problem, but I believe they should still have a say after 2008 but I think it should be on a simple majority. I think you should put something forward and there should be two elements. You should have a simple majority of teams in favour to stop people doing something completely mad and on top of that, you should have periods of notice which are consistent with the work you're asking them to do, so if it's anything to do with the engine, it's got to be at least 18 months, which I think is now recognised as the right period. If it's anything to do with the chassis, it's probably got to be a year ideally, and then any sporting regulation, probably more like six months, but always bearing in mind that some sporting regulations have an effect on the configuration of the car, so one has to keep that in mind as well. I'm all for people discussing but this situation we have now where if you want to change the engine just like that, you've got to get unanimous agreement, it's impossible and the result is that you really have cars now which are not ideal. I think we're going to put that right.
Q: (Tony Dodgins - Tony Dodgins and Associates) Max, a few years ago you had some problems with the European Commission and you had to pointedly split the regulatory and the commercial sides of the FIA. The commercial side is still up in the air and you're going early, can you confirm that you have no desire to be involved in that side?
MM: I never answered the other question about the memoir. I've got no plans to write a memoir. Sorry about that. Yes, the… I've got no plans to get involved in the commercial side. The thing is, I think the commercial side is nominally up in the air but I think that's more apparent than real. As far as I can see, there isn't the slightest doubt that agreement will be reached long before the present Concorde Agreement runs out that deals with everything. I think that gradually everyone understands that two championships would not be in anybody's interest and I think they all understand that unless they reach agreement, there would be two championships. The idea that if one group go off and do their own thing there won't be another group doing their own thing is pure fantasy. There would be. Unless you have agreement, you have two championships. If you have two championships it's a very very bad situation where everybody would get a lot less money so they'll end up settling. I don't see difficulties on the commercial side. People make a great thing of it but the reality is they have to agree and because they have to agree they will agree. That's my belief. Right, one more and then I'll leave you in peace.
Q: (Nigel Roebuck - Autosport) Max, can you tell us something about Bernie's reaction when you told him you'd decided to step down and did he try and dissuade you?
MM: When I first told him I don't think he thought I was serious but immediately after the meeting, he rang me and said 'so you did it.' And I said 'yes, I actually did it.' I don't think he thought I would. I feel a bit sad about it, because it's the end of an era. Obviously Bernie and I will remain friends, in fact it will probably be easier to be friends now that we are not in… I wouldn't say opposing camps, but sometimes opposing camps. Sometimes he and I have had to take different views and defend our positions, so purely from a person point of view it is probably conducive to friendship and I hope we remain very good friends. In a way, it's sort of sad but things move on. People change. Circumstances change. I think the worse thing one can do is particularly when you get old, over 60, to hang on is a mistake. At certain points, you've got to be ready to go and I'm read, I'm happy, I'm looking forward to being able to read one of the books I want to read. I still have time to be interested in ideas. I'll still be interested in motor sport - very interested - but I won't feel the terrible weight of responsibility that I've got to make it happen. If you think of the number of people involved, it is actually a heavy responsibility, if you feel the whole time that you mustn't make a mistake, but we all make mistakes. That part will be gone.