Support for
Max Mosley within the
Formula 1 paddock seems to be increasingly ebbing away in the wake of the lurid allegations about his private life published in a tabloid newspaper last weekend that have rocked the sport and overshadowed the on-track battle, with his position being described as ‘untenable'.
The
FIA President is currently embroiled in legal action against the
News of the World after the red-top published a front page exposé claiming that he had indulged in a ‘sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers' close to his London home. He is suing the paper for ‘unlimited damages' on the grounds of breach of privacy, and has repeatedly vigorously refuted any purported ‘Nazi connotations' behind the matter.
Despite this, however, and his insistence that his private life does not affect his professional capability to govern the sport, more and more senior
F1 figures are now calling for his head. Five-time grand prix winner and respected commentator John Watson has compared Mosley to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe in his determination to cling on to power.
“He has to make the judgment about whether he has to go, or do a Robert Mugabe and fight it out,” said the Ulsterman, who finished third in the 1982 world drivers' championship, in an interview with the
Observer. “There's no point in me or anyone else saying he should go. He's the only person who can make himself go.
“He knows the circumstances. He's an intelligent man, though that was constricted by what he's alleged to have done. If he thinks it's the best for world motorsport, he will go.”
