Bernie Ecclestone has rubbished claims he is pushing to try and get long-time ally and business partner
Max Mosley removed from his post in the wake of the highly-damaging sex scandal that has been swirling around the
FIA President over the past month.
Whilst initially seeming to offer his support for his friend in the aftermath of the
News of the World's shocking front page exposé on 30 March, Ecclestone has of late gone curiously silent on the matter, and reports suggest he was the driving force behind a meeting of all eleven of the sport's teams in
Toyota's motorhome in the Barcelona paddock at the weekend – a meeting whose agenda was to compose a letter calling for Mosley's resignation.
According to
F1SA, the sport's supremo visibly lost his cool when representatives for
Ferrari (the
Scuderia's president Luca di Montezemolo being a good friend of Mosley's),
Williams and
Scuderia Toro Rosso – whose co-owner Gerhard Berger is a near-neighbour in Monaco and frequently dines with the 68-year-old – refused to sign the statement.
Rivals
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and
Honda all issued their own statements back at the Bahrain Grand Prix three weeks ago, expressing their sincere distaste for the matter and seeking to distance themselves from Mosley.
“That's a load of nonsense,” Ecclestone insisted at the Circuit de Catalunya, when asked if he was taking steps to force Mosley's resignation. “It's just the press trying to conjure up another story.”
