Mosley delays final decision on whether to step down as president of the FIA

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/dec/23/formula-one-motor-sport-max-mosley-president

Potential successors should think carefully before standing

• New regulations should guarantee more overtakingguardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 23 December 2008 12.00 GMT

Max Mosley left the issue of whether he intends to stand for re-election as president of the governing body hanging.

Max Mosley has told the candidates lining up to succeed him to consider their options carefully before standing for election, after revealing that he will wait until June before making a final decision on his retirement from the post he has held for the past 15 years.


The president of the governing body, the FIA, had said that he planned to step down when his term ends next October, but has now confirmed that some members of the governing body have asked him to remain for another four-year term.


He intends to make a definite decision on his future in the middle of 2009. "I will take a final decision in June," the president told formula1.com, opening up the possibility that he may continue.


Outlining the qualities his successor required, Mosley said: "A great deal of patience and ideally an ability to understand quickly a great variety of technical and legal issues. I would advise a potential successor to think very carefully before standing for election.


"The difficulty is finding somebody who has the necessary experience, but also the time and inclination to do the job," he said. "You mention Nick Craw. He is the president of Accus [Automobile Competition Committee for the United States], which controls all the different forms of racing in the States. With all this to contend with, he is probably not exactly looking for work."


Moving on to his aspirations for the new season, Mosley said he hoped the new rules would guarantee more overtaking. "The 2009 aerodynamic regulations were developed by three of the top formula one engineers, aided by an extensive wind tunnel programme," he said. "I have no means of judging whether they have got it right, but if they have not, it will be surprising and disappointing. In addition, the Kers [kinetic energy recovery system], if fitted, will make a significant difference to overtaking by giving a car an 80hp boost for up to six seconds each lap."


The FIA has also moved to make the decision-making process of the race stewards more transparent and Mosley thinks that this will prevent a recurrence of the controversy after Lewis Hamilton was penalised in the Belgian Grand Prix.


"This change was prompted because people were criticising the stewards' decisions without having the information which the stewards had," he said. "The obvious way to deal with this is to make that information generally available. Once people understand why a decision was made, they will be less likely to disagree with it and any criticism will be informed rather than uninformed."