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For Formula One, sex sells; but not the way Max likes it

Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid

Wednesday, 30th April 2008

Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid say the motorsport industry is in turmoil — and could lose millions in sponsorship — as a result of Max Mosley’s tabloid embarrassment

Few sports have a sexier brand image than Formula One. Race-cars snaking through the streets of Monaco past grandstands full of the world’s most glamorous women; grid girls in tight T-shirts; top models such as Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum hanging off the arms of the team bosses: F1 has always used glamour to boost its global appeal. But in the past month the sport has gained an association more akin to Soho than St Tropez. Its mystique has been shattered and F1 is just beginning to count the cost.

Just before this year’s F1 season started in March the sport’s commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone said that there was one thing his global motor racing circus lacked: ‘There aren’t enough sex scandals.’ He should have been more careful what he wished for. At the end of March lurid reports came to light about Ecclestone’s longtime ally Max Mosley, 68-year-old president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) which governs not just F1 but the whole of motorsport. Among its members are motoring bodies such as the AA and the RAC and it is also responsible for the Euro NCAP rating system which has become the de facto standard for judging the safety of road cars.

Mosley, son of British fascist leader Sir Oswald, had been caught on video with five prostitutes in a five-hour romp which was degrading to say the least. Whips were used and, worst of all — according to the News of the World — there was an alleged Nazi theme apparently identifiable through the use of uniforms, German dialogue and concentration-camp role-play. The cliquey world of F1 had never seen anything like it and thought it couldn’t get any worse. But it did.

Instead of resigning or denying the allegations, Mosley wrote to his members claiming that he had been the subject of a sting and that (as Charles Moore was inclined to accept in his column last week) the Nazi aspect was ‘entirely false’. F1’s car manufacturers were not satisfied. They include global brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Toyota and Ferrari and they spend an estimated £650 million a year on F1. Support for Mosley could have led to customer or shareholder complaints — possibly even affecting their share prices. So it came as no surprise that several of them released statements distancing themselves from the scandal.

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