Max Mosley RIP

[NathanOlder]

Max Mosley has died today. Love him or hate him he did a lot of good work for F1.

RIP Max

[jjn9128]

Some of his ideas for F1 just seemed to be ahead of their time - budget caps, front roll cage, hybridized power units.

Shame about his private life and heavy handed running of the sport though.

[gshevlin]

So one of the Gang Of Two that controlled F1 for decades is gone.
Dead men tell no tales, but they also cannot sue for libel.
I expect that more interesting facts will be slowly revealed about Mosley's actions during his time in F1. As long as they do not contain names like Bernard Charles Ecclestone, who the last time I looked was still very much alive.
For me, the most interesting revelations so far were about the infamous Benetton suspension hearings in 1994, in the book written by the son of George Carman QC about his father. (Carman was for decades one of the UK's top commercial litigation and libel lawyers). According to Carmen senior, he found Mosley to be suave and sophisticated, and Ecclestone to be smart and cunning. Which kind of fits; Mosley was well-educated and was a polygot. I saw him being interviewed on German television in the 1990s and he spoke fluent German.

[Just_a_fan]

Which kind of fits; Mosley was well-educated and was a polygot. I saw him being interviewed on German television in the 1990s and he spoke fluent German.

Very intelligent chap. Degree in physics and then went in to law to make money. Spoke German having spent a couple of years in school in Germany.

Not a great fan of the chap but he certainly was successful.

[PlatinumZealot]

Very misunderstood man but very reasonable when you watch some of his interviews.

[gshevlin]

The interesting thing about Max Mosley was that he grew up in the long shadow cast by his father Oswald Mosley. He originally wanted to go into politics, but soon found out that his family name made him radioactive. Then he went to a motor racing meeting with a friend and found out that nobody in motor racing cared about his background or his family name. They took him as they found him. So he re-oriented his life and tried to become a motor racing driver (like Bernie), realized after a while that he was not good enough, and then moved into the commercial side.

[NathanOlder]

I can't remember exactly where I heard it but I remember hearing a comment about Max and his fued with Ron that made me laugh. It was all around the spygate saga, and when Ron and Max were shaking hands for photos after the case was closed and Mclaren were fined 100 million dollars apparently Max said quietly to Ron "of the 100 million fine, 1 million was because Mclaren stole documents from Ferrari, the other 99 million is because you are a C##T!"

Thats not word for word correct, but the figure and the final word is definitely what I remember reading. It was in someone's autobiography but I can't remember who exactly.

[Morteza]

I can't remember exactly where I heard it but I remember hearing a comment about Max and his fued with Ron that made me laugh. It was all around the spygate saga, and when Ron and Max were shaking hands for photos after the case was closed and Mclaren were fined 100 million dollars apparently Max said quietly to Ron "of the 100 million fine, 1 million was because Mclaren stole documents from Ferrari, the other 99 million is because you are a C##T!"

Thats not word for word correct, but the figure and the final word is definitely what I remember reading. It was in someone's autobiography but I can't remember who exactly.

Found the said quote here

Urban paddock legend has it that Mosley slighted Dennis verbally while standing for a photo of ‘reconciliation’ in the Spa paddock that summer of 2007. But in reality it was Ecclestone, Mosley claims, that said: “Ron was fined $5m for the offence and $95m for being a ****.”

[Jolle]

Interesting and complicated man. Probably the first to take on the Murdock empire and won.
Due to a law in Britain that would make fighting false claims made by tabloids extremely expensive, he, in private, funded lots of cases against the tabloids for people who couldn’t afford it (like in the whole telephone hacking story)

Oh, and he had sex with prostitutes dressed like nazis.

[J.A.W.]

The interesting thing about Max Mosley was that he grew up in the long shadow cast by his father Oswald Mosley. He originally wanted to go into politics, but soon found out that his family name made him radioactive. Then he went to a motor racing meeting with a friend and found out that nobody in motor racing cared about his background or his family name. They took him as they found him. So he re-oriented his life and tried to become a motor racing driver (like Bernie), realized after a while that he was not good enough, and then moved into the commercial side.

Interesting also that his British 'Nazi' connections via his parents (plus his own lurid fantasies in that area
so rudely/embarrassingly exposed) didn't really seem to affect/inhibit his longstanding relationship with
Bernie, (given Bernie's Jewish heritage) but 'business is business', even if nominally a 'sport', or not...

[nzjrs]

Interesting and complicated man. Probably the first to take on the Murdock empire and won.
Due to a law in Britain that would make fighting false claims made by tabloids extremely expensive, he, in private, funded lots of cases against the tabloids for people who couldn’t afford it (like in the whole telephone hacking story)

Oh, and he had sex with prostitutes dressed like nazis.

It's important and worth pointing out that he won the case against the tabloids for their reporting of that case, with the judge finding that it was erroneously characterised as "Nazi themed" and that participants had a right to privacy in such matters.

[McG]

Bye.

[Just_a_fan]

Interesting and complicated man. Probably the first to take on the Murdock empire and won.
Due to a law in Britain that would make fighting false claims made by tabloids extremely expensive, he, in private, funded lots of cases against the tabloids for people who couldn’t afford it (like in the whole telephone hacking story)

Oh, and he had sex with prostitutes dressed like nazis.

And the Daily Mail still hates him for beating a newspaper in court. Their headline from their website:

The fascist's son who tried to destroy free Press that exposed him: He revelled in the glamour of F1 but Max Mosley, who has died at 81, had an ugly racist past and an exotic private life that sparked a bitter vendetta against Fleet Street

See how they play the victim? "Tried to destroy the free Press". It's stomach churning. The Daily Mail is a nasty, racist, xenophobic rag with a history of being extremely sympathetic to the very fascists they now apparently detest.

Their whole obituary is one long diatribe against him using just the bad things. They absolutely hated him.

[djos]

Some of his ideas for F1 just seemed to be ahead of their time - budget caps, front roll cage, hybridized power units.

Shame about his private life and heavy handed running of the sport though.

True, my #1 beef with Max were the sweet-heart deals with Bernie giving him control over Billions in F1 revenue for peanuts.

[Tommy Cookers]

.... my #1 beef with Max were the sweet-heart deals with Bernie giving him control over Billions in F1 revenue for peanuts.

yes

better days ? ... MM was making fast progress as a novice driver, almost winning the Clubman's national series in 1967 ....
then into F2 .... (in those days packed with F1 and world champion drivers) ....
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arti ... y-crusade/