There comes a day in every child's life where they realize that there is no Santa Claus.  For some it comes early, for others late, but a fortunate, lucky few keep their sense of wonder and joy alive for all their days, brightening the lives of all they come in contact with.

Max Mosley is not one of those.  In fact it seems likely that as a toddler, Max stood up in his crib and threw rattles and pacifiers at his false-beard-clad father on December 25th.

I've come to this conclusion regarding the Emperor Mosley only recently.  As we are all aware, a looming disintegration of F1 was avoided at the last moment only by Mosley's confirmation that he will not stand for re-election when his current term as President of the FIA comes to an end in October.  As could have been predicted by anybody with two synapses to rub together, this was hailed by the press as a victory for the FOTA teams over the much-disliked Mosley.  At one point, Ferrari chief (and de facto head of FOTA) Luca di Montezemelo used the word 'dictator' in reference to Mosely.

While in truth the Emperor has been a dictator for much of his time as the FIA President when it comes to F1, it may come as a shock to hear that he doesn't much care for such a description.  Perhaps that's because of his father's ties to the National Socialist movement just prior to WWII, or maybe he just prefers the title Emperor.  Either way, Mosley is throwing his rattles again, except now he's about to ruin our Christmas.

On Friday, he issued a statement insisting that di Montezemelo retract his comment, apologize, and correct the "many inaccurate statements" in the FOTA press release of Wednesday.  If this isn't done, says Mosley, he will reconsider his decision to step down as President and run for the office again.

I feel like I'm 17 years old and just opened my presents... and got nothing but socks.

From all appearances, the FOTA declaration calling off the split was based entirely on Mosely's departure.  Now that he might not leave, we're essentially right back where we were before last Wednesday's meeting.

Now I feel like I'm six years old, just opened my presents... and got nothing but socks.

In other news, there's a rumor floating around that Manor, Campos, and USF1, the three new teams on the grid next season (if there is a next season), will be allowed to run their engines at 20000rpm, while the "old" teams will continue to be restricted to 18000rpm.  On the face of it, that seems like like quite the advantage, worth perhaps as much as 10mph or so in straightline speed.  In truth, it probably won't work out to be much of an advantage at all.  Consider that those engines will still have to last three race weekends; those extra rpms will make life harder on those powerplants.  Also consider that the engines will be built by Cosworth, which hasn't been in F1 since 2006.  No knock on Cosworth, they're a fine marque with a long and very successful history in Formula 1, but the new engines will be essentially untried.  In a world where tolerances are measured in microns and a grain of sand can turn an engine into a flaming lump in seconds, untried engines are always a worry.  Letting them run at 20Krpm might be as much a curse as a blessing.

Next, it appears that Ferrari is seriously considering throwing in the towel on 2009 to concentrate on next year's car.  Luca di Montezemelo is blaming the team's poor chassis on poorly defined rules (i.e. the double diffuser dilemma) and KERS.  Of course, both rule changes can be laid right at the feet of Emperor Mosley, but that's just a coincidence I'm sure.

Finally, USF1's Sporting Director, Peter (Smarmy) Windsor was interviewed on SPEED's Wind Tunnel show tonight, and he was asked about the rumor that a major sponsor for the team was Chad Hurley, one of the creators of YouTube.  In a display Fred Astaire would have been proud of, Windsor danced around the question quite adroitly, while promising that there were announcements coming forthwith.  He DID, however, deny that Pamela Anderson was going to be involved in the team in some way.

For which fact, we should all be very grateful.  I wouldn't even wish that on Max Mosley.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:27 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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