Simviation Forum - What is it with Mosley?

Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:08am

eno Offline
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Hamilton 'may be negative for F1'
Motorsport boss Max Mosley has said Lewis Hamilton could have a negative effect on Formula One if he is as successful next year as he was in 2007.

"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect," he said.

"It will start to be negative because we'll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can't you do something to slow him down."

Mosley added that Hamilton's role in revitalising F1 had been exaggerated.

"He has certainly helped enormously in the UK," said Mosley, the president of governing body the FIA, in an interview with the BBC's Hardtalk programme.

"He's also got a lot of interest worldwide because he's come manifestly not from a rich background. He's just made it.

"There is always somebody new. If it wasn't him it would be either [Nico] Rosberg or [Robert] Kubica or one of the other new stars, a [Sebastian] Vettel, would suddenly be the big one.

It would be surprising if Hamilton didn't know something of what was going on [in spy-gate], but I've got absolutely no evidence that he had
Max Mosley (above)
"So I think there is a tendency to exaggerate the importance of Lewis Hamilton."

Mosley added that it was "very unlikely" that Hamilton would be installed as champion following a hearing next month into the results of the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix.

McLaren have appealed against the decision not to punish the Williams and BMW Sauber teams for having fuel that was too cold.

If McLaren are successful in having their three points-scoring drivers excluded, Hamilton could be moved up in the results to fourth, giving him enough points to displace Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen as world champion.

But Mosley said: "It could happen, absolutely, because this will go to a court of appeal.

"It consists of very senior lawyers who are not connected with any of the countries involved in the events, so not Britain, not Italy and so on. It's an independent court. It can decide.

"That said, it's very unlikely, because even if they excluded those cars they are not obliged to reclassify Hamilton. There's absolutely no need, if they don't wish to, to change the position that Hamilton was in."

Mosley described the 2007 season as "very positive, on the whole", despite the controversies that plagued the sport, because "although the behind-the-scenes stuff was annoying for us and the people concerned, for the public it really adds to the general interest".

One of those controversies was the "spy-gate" saga, when Hamilton's McLaren team were fined $100m (£49.2m) and thrown out of the constructors' championship after being found guilty of possessing confidential Ferrari technical information.

Mosley said McLaren's 2008 car would be closely scrutinised by the FIA to ensure the team had not included any Ferrari ideas on it.

"That [Ferrari data] was in the hands of the chief designer at precisely the moment he was designing the 2008 McLaren," Mosley said.

"The difficulty we have is that you're not going to find on the McLaren a part that was designed by Ferrari.

"What you may find are ideas and at this level of technology at this level of motorsport, if the idea is given to the chief designer he will make a component utilising that idea which bears no relation at all to the component perhaps being used by the other car.

"So we will be looking for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough, it will use outside experts and we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that either of the McLarens has no element of Ferrari intellectual property in it or if it does we will then have to consider taking some sort of action.

"That would not necessarily be preventing them from running. It would be more likely that they would be given a negative point allocation.

"Finding something will not be easy. On the other hand, there are sources we are going to deploy who will give us as good a chance as its possible to have to find it."

Asked if he thought Hamilton had known more about the Ferrari information being in McLaren's possession than has come out in public, Mosley said: "He's not a known quantity to me.

"It would be surprising if he didn't know something of what was going on, but I've got absolutely no evidence that he had. On that basis it would be wrong of me to suggest that he had."
Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7070564.stm

Published: 2007/10/31 08:19:43 GMT

© BBC MMVII

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Reply #1 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:38am

expat Offline
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Maybe it is:

Drugs
Senile dementia
Pompous a$$hole
Suffering a major attack of self importance
Me-Me syndrome
Brain in neutral, mouth always in 5th
Or a mixture of the above

Matt

PETA People Eating Tasty Animals.

B1 Boeing 737-800 and Dash8 Q-400

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Reply #2 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:43am

ozzy72 Offline
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Or more likely he is just an ignorant fascist twit like his dad and we should throw him in prison Grin

There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!

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Reply #3 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 6:52am

Craig. Offline
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In defense of Lewis, its not his fault. Just as it was in no way Michaels fault when he was the fastest guy out there. If people want everyone going round at the same speed go watch A1GP.
That said, Lewis was by no means the fastest or most dominant driver out there. That one goes to Kimi, take out his mechanical retirements and the guy was the fastest man on the grid at just about every race(hungary and the north american races excluded), and it wont be too much differant next year I have a feeling.
All that happend was Lewis was consistant and had the luck of reliability the whole year. We can blame the FIA and their stupid points system for the fact it took so long to close the gap. Change that, make the gap from 1st place to 2nd bigger, maybe then we'll see people really fighting for the win.

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Reply #4 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 1:37pm

C Offline
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Well, I suspect if other drivers were in a McLaren or Ferrari (such as Rosberg and Kubica, even JB), they'd be winning races. So Lewis' talent is not the problem - inequiality between the teams is. The only way around it would be to limit technology, its development and funding, or go the route preferred in most other Formula's and series' around the world, and have only 2 or 3 chassis manufacturers and engine suppliers (as CART was for most of the 90s)...

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Reply #5 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 2:01pm

Craig. Offline
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Sorry but Formula one is supposed to be about the best manfacturers in the world competing with the best drivers in the world. Single make series are rather boring, A1GP for example. The field this year was probably as close as it ever has been. With the exception of the super aguri team, ever team on the grid next year will have financial budgets that allow for constant year long development.(unless SA get some new sponsors) So I can only see it getting closer. But as Honda/Toyota and BMW have all proved, big budget doesn't mean a winning car. You also need a decent staff.

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Reply #6 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:20pm

C Offline
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Craig. wrote on Oct 31^st, 2007 at 2:01pm:

Sorry but Formula one is supposed to be about the best manfacturers in the world competing with the best drivers in the world.

Exactly my point - and in that you have the viscious circle - and it only appears to be getting worse. 4-5 years ago you could expect 3 teams to have a decent shot at winning a GP: Ferrari, McLaren, Williams. Then Renault got their act together again, and Honda nearly got there, but Williams dropped off, and now Renault have dropped back too, and Honda went into reverse! We've got to the point that now, barring accident and extreme bad luck, only McLaren or Ferrari are able to win races with any certainty.

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Reply #7 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:39pm

Craig. Offline
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I think if Alonso goes back to Renault, it'll certainly help to bring them right back into the action. BMW should pick up their game, they finally hired an aerodynamasist after running half the season without a dedicated head of that department.
Honda surely cant be any worse than last year, and with the ban in traction control it certainly helps Button and his driving style.

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Reply #8 - Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:47pm

C Offline
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Craig. wrote on Oct 31^st, 2007 at 5:39pm:

I think if Alonso goes back to Renault, it'll certainly help to bring them right back into the action. BMW should pick up their game, they finally hired an aerodynamasist after running half the season without a dedicated head of that department.
Honda surely cant be any worse than last year, and with the ban in traction control it certainly helps Button and his driving style.

Hopefully a few more people losing it too...

...which of course means little these days in the age of the Tilketarmacrunoff... Grin

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Reply #9 - Nov 2^nd, 2007 at 9:44am

Nelson Offline
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Craig. wrote on Oct 31^st, 2007 at 6:52am:

We can blame the FIA and their stupid points system for the fact it took so long to close the gap. Change that, make the gap from 1st place to 2nd bigger, maybe then we'll see people really fighting for the win.

100% agree with you Craig, 10-6-4-3-2-1 . I am not against 7th and 8th getting points as such, but back in the day of 35 entrants and pre-qualifying, to get a point held great value, much less so now. If 7th and 8th absolutely MUST have a point or two, then they should at least make 1st = 12 or 14 points. But smarter people than me run the show Roll Eyes

I have to disagree with I think it was Charlie who said:

"Exactly my point - and in that you have the viscious circle - and it only appears to be getting worse. 4-5 years ago you could expect 3 teams to have a decent shot at winning a GP: Ferrari, McLaren, Williams. Then Renault got their act together again, and Honda nearly got there, but Williams dropped off, and now Renault have dropped back too, and Honda went into reverse! We've got to the point that now, barring accident and extreme bad luck, only McLaren or Ferrari are able to win races with any certainty. "

When I started watching in '89-90 , only 1 team had ANY chance, and before that there had been an era of Williams-Honda 'strength', if not dommination. PROST made Ferrari a force again and made Alesi, as talented as the kid was way back in '91, look much better than he was. The calibre of driver has always and will always have much to do with this 'equality' amongst the teams.

I then remember an 'era' of mid-91 to end '93 when NO TEAM had any chance against the Williams Renault. This may have had alot to do with a certain engine (EDIT:+ Active Suspension ), but no doubt we had in Mansel and Prost some speed even Ayrton could not match if not equally powered. The rise of Michael Shumacher is something else, and lets not fool ourselves that his Benettons were any world beaters, just ask his team mates of Brundle, Verstappen, ect. Shumi made it look much, much better than it was.

Thus , we had another Willimas ERA, which was only broken when the powerhouse of the sleeping giant was awoken by Shumachers arrival. Indeed, I can remember being happy for Ferarri when that started, and 10 years later I hated their dominance Grin

McLaren had to 'bust a gut' to get a look in with Mika during this Ferrari Era. And so it comes full circle. People used to complain about McLaren dominance in the late 80's, but no- one even mention their name when Mika Hakkinenn would run all day for 6th during the "dark days" Cool

of 94-96. Long live the Mika ! Kiss

It makes Forumla One so great that , as Senna said, 'so much goes into it that only 1,2 or 3 drivers in a year can win, and this makes it so special.' Williams may bounce back, they may not, but I for one have never seen since such a dominant machine as they built for both Mansel and Prost for 92' and 93'.

The most recent state of things is largley the result of the engine change, it was a huge change to the current spec, and so far only the two powerhouses of Mercedes and Ferrari have got this nailed, though never write of a Renault in the modern times. If you ask me, we have never seen such parity in the modern era as we have today.

Cheers, here's to another McLaren era. PS - did you all know Mika Hakkinen outqualified Ayrton Senna in his first race for McLaren, Estoril '93, and he had only had 2 seasons at Lotus and a season as McLaren Test driver before they gave him the last 3 races of '93 when Andretti flew home for good , after Michael.A had bagged a 3rd at Monza the race before....Senna could not believe it.....Geez I am full of useless trivia...I need a hypnotist.

Paul
sigh - 4-5 months with no F1 now.... Sad

lucky I love cricket.

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Reply #10 - Nov 2^nd, 2007 at 10:46am

C Offline
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Nelson wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2007 at 9:44am:

"Exactly my point - and in that you have the viscious circle - and it only appears to be getting worse. 4-5 years ago you could expect 3 teams to have a decent shot at winning a GP: Ferrari, McLaren, Williams. Then Renault got their act together again, and Honda nearly got there, but Williams dropped off, and now Renault have dropped back too, and Honda went into reverse! We've got to the point that now, barring accident and extreme bad luck, only McLaren or Ferrari are able to win races with any certainty. "[/color]

When I started watching in '89-90 , only 1 team had ANY chance,

I think you missed my point. I was talking about 4-5 years ago, not the late 80s early/mid 90s. In any case, in 1991/2 I didn't care that Williams dominated, 'cos a certain

5

(our Nige) kept on winning.

My point was that we actually had got to a situation where several teams were almost at the point of winning regularly, but have now gone back to the one of two situation. having said that, from those 2 teams, any of the four drivers can win regularly, which is fairly novel...

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