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Berger backs Max against 'angels' |
Gerhard Berger has become one of the few Formula One individuals to speak openly about the ongoing Max Mosley sex scandal saga, and came out in support of the under-fire FIA president on the eve of the Monaco Grand Prix.
The blue riband event marks Mosley's first appearance at a Formula One event since revelations about his private life were splashed across the British tabloid press two months ago, and comes as the 68-year old faces calls to resign his position at the head of world motorsport. Although his presence in the Principality is supposed to be low key - with many members of the F1 paddock joining the Monaco royal family in not wanting to be pictured with Mosley - the president has managed to hold one meeting regarding the future of the sport, and insists that he will not be standing down of his own accord.
While others present at the second FIA press conference of the weekend declined to comment on the matter, short of confirming that they felt it was an internal matter to be decided by the governing body and its member associations, Berger spoke out in support of Mosley's contribution to the sport.
"I never commented [before] because I think it's an entirely private thing, I think there is nothing to comment on," the Austrian insisted, "It's something that has happened with grown-up people, nothing which is against the law. I have to say I'm very surprised how many angels there are around here, especially in Formula One. Suddenly, everyone seems to be very clean and very nice....
"To connect this to the job, as FIA president, I don't think is right. I've been in Formula One a long time now, I've seen many things. I've been racing in the Max Mosley era and, in the position that I'm in now. I think there are very few people – maybe nobody – who has had such an impact on safety for motorsport as Max.
"If you think back, especially after what happened in '94 at Imola, it needed a very strong guy to change a lot of things - race tracks, crash tests, etc. To see an accident, like [Robert] Kubica's last year in Canada for example, before [Mosley's intervention], you would have had no chance to survive. I think he has also had a lot of input even in road car safety, in the Euro ENCAP, all these improvements in the crash tests save a lot of lives.
"I think it's not fair to see it through the glasses as some people have tried to see it at the moment. I think it should be totally decided by the automobile clubs and by himself, how the future of the FIA goes - it should not be run by newspapers, or us.
"I just know one thing.... The sport needs a strong guy, a competitive guy, a strong guy who understands the business, and we definitely have this with Max. Hopefully, we will have in the future. That's all I want to say."
The panel were similarly evasive when asked about the potential for 'war' between Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, after the former suggested that there were commercial entities determined to take over the running of the sport, although Williams CEO Adam Parr made an interesting observation.
"I think it's a question that, no doubt, interests people a great deal, but I think it's very, very difficult to understand what's going on," he ventured, "It's a bit like during the Cold War, [when] there were those 'Kremlinologists' who used to watch whether someone's eyebrow was a millimetre higher or lower when they were watching the May Day parade in Moscow, and then tried to conclude from that whether Russia was about to invade Yugoslavia. The answer is I don't have a clue what's going on, actually."
