Max Mosley, the former president of motorsport’s world
governing body the
FIA, who has died aged 81, “was like a brother”, ex-Formula
One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told AFP.
اضافة اعلان
Mosley became FIA president in 1993 after serving in
previous administrative roles in the sport, including within
Formula One.
The former racing driver, who had been suffering from
cancer, served three terms as president before standing down in 2009.
“We were I suppose like brothers,” Ecclestone told AFP by
phone from his base in Switzerland.
“Max could be a difficult person to understand but we understood
each other, he added.
“I could tell him if I felt he was wrong and he would accept
it and he could do vice versa.”
Ecclestone, 90, said Mosley did not get the credit for what
he had done in the sport.
“He was interesting and a character,” said Ecclestone.
“Those who did not know what he was really made of found it
easier to criticise him than try and get to know what made him tick, he
explained.
Ecclestone said Mosley having been a driver had the best
interests of the sport at heart.
“He was genuinely interested in doing what he could to make
the sport more accessible and easier for people.”
Mosley was the son of 1930s British fascist leader Oswald
Mosley and Diana, one of the famed Mitford sisters.
He found, though, that his colorful parentage was not a
problem when he drove in Formula Two for Brabham in 1968.
“I heard somebody (one of his fellow drivers) say, ‘Mosley,
Max Mosley, he must be some relation of Alf Mosley, the coachbuilder.’” Mosley
recalled to Atlas F1 in 2011.
“And I thought to myself, ‘I’ve found a world where they
don’t know about Oswald Mosley.’”
‘This is trouble’
Mosley experienced a family tragedy in 2009 when his son
Alexander died aged 39. The coroner ruled Alexander’s death was due to
non-dependent drug abuse.
Mosley senior studied at Oxford University, where he read
physics, but later trained as a lawyer and became a barrister whose specialism
was patent and trademark law.
His love of motor racing began in his youth and he was
involved in Formula 2 for Brabham and Lotus before retiring in 1969.
His first race at the Nurburgring in Germany in 1968 is best
known for the tragic death of legend Jim Clark.
A year later at the same track an accident prompted him to
call time on his career.
“The left front wheel stopped turning and I thought, ‘This
is trouble’, and I ended up in the caravan park,” he told Atlas F1 in the 2011
interview.
“It was evident that I wasn’t going to be world champion.”
He became president of FISA, Formula One’s governing body at
the time, in 1991 and two years later took over unopposed at the FIA.
He oversaw the safety reforms in the sport that followed the
death of Ayrton Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.
Jean Todt replaced Mosley as FIA president in 2009. Since
then, Mosley had campaigned for tougher regulation of the press.
The Williams Racing team were one of the first to pay
tribute, tweeting from their official account: “We are saddened to learn of the
passing of former FIA president, Max Mosley.
“Our condolences go out to his family and friends at this
difficult time.”
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