Trying to Burn Bernie

[Rory Phoulorie]

Saturday 28th June 2008

It's war, then...

The FIA's announcement this week that they are to launch a new F2 series to rival GP2 is the most visible of opening shots. To use a WWII analogy, Max Mosley has just stormed across the border into Poland with his Panzer divisions. Mosley and the FIA are lined up against Bernie Ecclestone and his commercial partners, the equity firm that owns the commercial rights to F1 and GP2, CVC.

Of course there are rumours that it was Bernie who started the hostilities in the first place

This 'mysterious plot' to bring down Max Mosley (by revealing Max's lurid taste for being whipped by prostitutes) was originally thought to be an attempt at revenge by News International. The owners of the News of the World - who also publish the Sunday Times - were being sued by the FIA for comments Martin Brundle made about their bias.

Brundle had had the temerity to point out the inconsistencies of McLaren being fined $100m for the Stepneygate spy saga, yet Renault, who had also filched and distributed McLaren ideas and drawings, were fined nothing at all. And subsequent revelations have alleged that Max Mosley also advised Renault boss Flavio Briatore on how to avoid punishment in the 1994 World Championship when Benetton were found to have removed a filter from their (illegally modified) fuel rig.

The News of the Screws investigation was thought to be the newspaper group flexing its muscles for having a pop at the Times and Brundle. Then friends of Max started to suggest it was McLaren who had tipped off the newspaper. McLaren vigorously denied the assertion and pretty soon that claim was retracted. Now, all the focus appears to be concentrated on Bernie Ecclestone. So much so that we had an astonishing revelation in the Times this week from Dean Attew, a corporate security advisor who has worked for both Bernie and Max in the past.

Attew said that he'd been tipped off in January that someone was out to discredit Max and informed Ecclestone. Bernie gave the advice to Max and Max did nothing about it. Quite clearly, as we've all seen the video now.

Attew approached the press because he'd seen an inference from the Mosley camp that it was Ecclestone who was responsible for Max's exposure whereas be believes it to be quite the opposite.

In the article - viewable online on the Timesonline website - Attew comes across as a bit of an Ecclestone homer, a gumshoe with a mission to clear Bernie's name. But the fact is that he is in partnership, in a corporate security company, with Major General John Holmes, former head of Britain's Special Forces. By no means a bit-part player. But if not Bernie, who...?

Max and Bernie used to be as thick as thieves. Former BBC Grandstand producer Mike Murphy used to tell me that he'd always bump into them drinking together in some Chelsea hostelry. Not any more. And now that Ecclestone has so clearly outlined the view that he thinks it would be right for Max to step down, the battle lines have been drawn.

By proposing an alternative feeder series to F1 (and a dubiously cheap one at that), the FIA's next move, no doubt, is to install it as the support race at GP weekends. At which point the TV exposure of GP2 - and hence its attraction to sponsors - nosedives. We already have GP2, A1GP, F3, Formula BMW and Formula Renault - we don't need another feeder series.

Another provocation is the FIA's continued support for the GP that all the teams hate. Earlier this year, Bernie Ecclestone told French newspaper L'Equipe that "we won't be going back to Magny Cours in 2009". This week the provisional calendar was announced and the French GP was back on the schedule.

What's more, the British GP date had been moved away from its traditional calendar slot after the French GP in 2009. The FIA hadn't indulged in the ludicrous farce of shifting it to April - like they did in 2000 - but you have to wonder if the move is anything to do with some of the circuit owners' views. The BRDC own Silverstone and its president Damon Hill and former president, Sir Jackie Stewart, both told Max that he should consider his position after Dominatrix-gate.

We can expect more moves in the weeks to come as speculation increases about a likely breakaway GP series and also the Mosley vs News International court case is due to start on July 7th.

Two men caught in the middle of the strife are F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting and his assistant Herbie Blash. Both worked for Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team in the 1980s before taking up their FIA positions. Whiting in particular is a seasoned operator and would be missed if he were forced out of his role. Last year Planet F1 voted him the Star of the Race in the Japanese GP for providing a memorable event when all the drivers wanted to do was go home.

At 56, Charlie has many more years ahead of him. What we wouldn't want to see is the kind of situation we had with the FIA stewards, when Tony Scott-Andrews was installed as a permanent race steward then suddenly decided he would be retiring at the end of 2007. The system was then changed to give a greater role for Max Mosley's representative Allan Donnelly. If Charlie were forced out we might as well call it Max's Scalextric Set, not F1.

Andrew Davies