Moseley's Power politics

[John S]

Niki Lauda has described the latest ‘ill-considered’ moves of the FIA a typical attempt to catch the powerful teams offside.

The triple world champion, who has also tasted the flavour of the backroom politics first hand as a Ferrari advisor and latterly Jaguar team boss, said he suspects the saga is a shot amid the sport's power struggle.

The 60-year-old told Sport Bild the row over the scoring system introduction, and the forthcoming voluntary budget cap, is a "typical high-speed" manoeuvre by Max Mosley "in order to pressurise the manufacturers."
"Everything was completely ill-considered," Lauda added.

Ill-considered, Lauda argues, but not necessarily a mistake by the FIA President. 
 
Indeed, Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone have separately confirmed that the budget cap proposal is provisional and open to negotiation.

Less cunning, however, is the FIA's handling so far of the rear-diffuser issue, according to Lauda, with possible protests looming over the season opener due to the vague wording of the regulations.

"The FIA should have made (the issue) more clear, especially as it (the rear diffuser) is such an important part," he told the German newspaper Bild.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

[Steven Roy]

I can see every result from the first three months of the championship being appealed until the FIA sort the diffuser nonsense out.

[lkjohnson1950]

Utter nonsense that the supposed pinnacle of racing should say Well we won't know if the cars are legal until after the race, then we'll have a look and clarify the rules for the teams. F1 becomes more of a joke series every year Max is in charge.

Lonny

[SennaMan]

as I posted elsewhere, if FERRARI does not have something another competitor has then of course it is b illegal!

doubly so if the other competitor beats them

however, remember the illegal floor FERRARI's KR had and won the Aussie GP in 2007?

after the race FIA said tut tut you naughty boys, remove it, but did not deduct any points and it so happened KR won the WDC that year by less than 10 points.

[Steven Roy]

I think the FIA could initially decide these diffusers are legal to try to slap Ferrari into line.  Ferrari have been a bit of a naughty puppy recently and its master will want to put it in its place.

[Scott]

I also think Max and Bernie are going to encourage this to escalate so that the teams are at each others throats, and that divisiveness may trickle down into the FOTA meetings.

[johnbull]

I also think Max and Bernie are going to encourage this to escalate so that the teams are at each others throats, and that divisiveness may trickle down into the FOTA meetings.

Ye. Divide and rule. Both Max and Bernie have got that down to a fine art.