24/06/2009
NEWS STORY
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FIA President Max Mosley has announced that he will not stand for re-election later this year in a move which appears to have saved F1 from imploding.
The Englishman, speaking following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris, also claims that a deal has been done which will result in a "unified F1" and which ends the threat of a breakaway series.
"I will not be up for re-election," he told reporters, "we now have peace, there will be no split.
"We have agreed to a reduction of costs," he added. "There will be one F1 championship in 2010 but the objective is still to get back to the spending levels of the early nineties within two years."
In recent days the pressure on Mosley has been mounting, with many pointing to the FIA President as the root cause of the row that threatened the future of the sport.
At the height of last year's infamous sex scandal the Englishman had said he would not stand again - no pun intended - however, his subsequent victory in the law courts clearly emboldened him, and it wasn't long before he was not only talking of serving a fifth term but looking to consolidate his position as overall ruler of the sport.
While the teams have said that much of the current row is about money, F1 insiders are well aware that the real sticking point is Mosley and his totalitarian approach to the governance of the sport.
While the Presidency of the FIA is an internal matter, it is widely believed that if the current situation had deteriorated further, F1 owners CVC and Bernie Ecclestone would have taken their own steps.
More to follow.