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Saturday 11 October 2008

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

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

Mosley’s reaction inflamed the sport. He turned the situation on its head by dredging up the car makers’ own former links to Nazism. ‘Given the history of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, particularly before and during World War Two, I fully understand why they would strongly distance themselves from what they rightly describe as the disgraceful content of these publications.’

Ten FIA members have since turned on Mosley, with some of the strongest criticism coming from the biggest members. The German auto club, ADAC, said he should ‘very carefully reconsider his role’; the Canadian motoring authority said that ‘the best decision would be the resignation of Mr Mosley’ and the American Automobile Association (AAA) agreed. Trade bodies followed and F1 luminaries from Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss to Niki Lauda and Martin Brundle all called for Mosley to step down. Jewish bodies condemned him and trade shows banned him from participating. The Crown Prince of Bahrain even barred Mosley from last month’s Grand Prix. Just three countries — Brazil, the UAE and Jordan — have publicly expressed support for him.

News of the deepening crisis has swept the world’s media and swamped race reports, yet Mosley has refused to resign, declaring the scandal a private matter and nothing to do with his job. He is even campaigning for ‘beefed up’ laws to protect individuals in Britain from intrusions into their privacy.

‘What has happened is bad enough, but by not dealing with it in the way that would be best for motorsport and the auto industry, he is actually making it worse,’ says a leading consultant. Mosley has called a vote of confidence at an extraordinary general meeting of the FIA where he will state his case, but this won’t take place until 3 June. In the meantime the scandal is driving F1 off the road.

More than 300 sponsors invest a total of £417 million a year in F1’s 11 teams. They do so to gain exposure to F1’s almost 600 million viewers — and they don’t want to be harmed by the association. ‘We are looking at a sport that is already tarnished and it could be damaged,’ says former F1 champion Stewart, who also represents one of the sport’s most prominent partners, Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank invests around £13 million annually to support the Williams team and advertise on trackside hoardings. It also lent several hundred million pounds to F1’s owner, private equity firm CVC, which used the debt to buy the business. RBS’s chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin has — despite other current preoccupations — kept in close contact with Ecclestone about the scandal and says ‘it’s an FIA matter but we’re watching it closely’.

More articles from: Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid | this section

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