In a separate interview with the
BBC, Stewart has also warned that should Mosley not step down soon, the impact on the sport's investors – both current and potential – and indeed its very future could be significant as Formula 1's reputation is increasingly dragged through the dirt.
“You are talking about multi-national corporations,” he insisted, “and what's going on right now could damage them. If you were such an organisation and the chairman or CEO was excited about coming into
F1, the marketing director might say ‘there's a lot of stuff going on at the moment, why don't we hold back until we see how they handle it?'
“A board member at a public company asks how much they are spending in
Formula 1. How can we justify that if the moral standards that we have within our company are compromised with this level of moral ambivalence? The sponsors have to turn around and ask if this is something they want to be part of.
“Many sponsors are tied in contractually, but the problem is if those contracts are coming up for renewal, they might be unhappy the sport has been blemished. They could turn around and say ‘maybe we should withdraw our advertising for the time being'.
“The sport is vulnerable when it comes to moral issues. If it's called a ‘scandal', then that affects F1 as a whole and the perception of it by some cultures and religions. It might take up to a week to ten days for this to play out. People are waiting for others to act before they declare their hands. Max has lost the paddock – that is my perception from what others are saying.”
That much would seem to have been proved by the reaction to the revelations of some of Formula 1's leading manufacturers – most prominently
BMW, Mercedes-Benz,
Toyota and
Honda – who have expressed their disgust for the matter, and in the case of the two German giants gone so far as to release a joint statement condemning Mosley's actions.
