Mosley Survivies

Max Mosley managed to survive a vote of confidence on Tuesday. However it may turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for the FIA President as the issue refuses to go away.

Mosley won rather convincingly but the complicated setup of how the clubs and such are handled makes it hard to fathom how he survived so easy after many predicted a close vote. The future of the FIA is up in the cloud as many have voiced their disapproval of the outcome.

Already the German national governing body for motorsport, the ADAC has withdrawn from the FIA until such time that Mosley quits. They aren’t the only body considering their current involvement with the FIA. It will be interesting to see if any of the others carry through to leave. If more of the larger body’s move to withdraw support, then the FIA will find itself in an even more precarious position.

Despite the result changes nothing.

Mosley should do the right thing and stand down. Since this whole business has come to light, we’ve learned things that we really didn’t want to know. But we know them. There is no changing that now. We have seen in the past that people in positions of power, in both public and private sector, have had to resign over scandals. Despite the public not getting a say within the FIA, they are still viewed from a public standpoint. Over the past few weeks we have already seen the result of the Mosley scandal. He was asked not to come to Bahrain. Spanish and Monaco royalty would not meet with him at the respective races. Nobody wants anything to do with him now.

This is the president of the FIA, the governing body for world motorsport. How can an organisation of that stature be led by someone who is not respected. What makes the FIA different that a scandal hit leader can continue on and still believe he can make the difference. No matter what Mosley has done over his presidency, he will always be remembered for this now.

Let’s not forget the sponsors and the manufacturers. Both are pivotal to the sport. Do they really want names attached to the sport? A clean break would have allowed this to issue, with is dragging on now, to be finally swept under the carpet and all parties could move on. As it stands now, Mosley will be around until next year should he keep to his retirement date.

What happens between now and then will be most interesting.