F1 - Mosley please get out of the sport

[stealthn]

Yes, just after the season of seasons, just after you thought it was finally over, good old Max tells us that Hamilton is/won't be good for the sport.

"Motorsport boss Max Mosley has said Lewis Hamilton could have a negative effect on Formula One if he is as successful next year as he was in 2007.

"If he does the same thing next season as he's done this season, it will certainly have a big effect," he said.

"It will start to be negative because we'll get the Schumacher effect where people start writing to me saying can't you do something to slow him down."

Mosley added that Hamilton's role in revitalising F1 had been exaggerated."

Yes of course we don't want successful drivers, at least not ones that aren't Ferrari right MAX?

Unbelieveable! Hey Max, Lewis didn't win the championship you stupid wanker!

What in the hell is going on with this guy? anyone, bueller, bueller

Here's the full link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7070564.stm

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Didn't you hear? FIA passed a new rule making it illegal for any non-Ferrari to win from now on.

[frogger]

[legion]

I think this vindicates me that the FIA was out to get McLaren and Hamilton all season.

I love how Mosley is so worried about Hamilton getting popular, but couldn't care less about it happening to Raikkonen.

[Joeaksa]

Just watched the interview on BBC over here. Complete A$$wipe.

[jluetjen]

Personally I've tended to find Max Mosely's thoughts pretty deep after reflection, while my initial reaction tends to consider them to be pretty whacked. Some things to keep in mind...

1) Max Mosely's credentials are pretty impeccable as far as being an F1 believer to the core. As one of the founders of March race cars, he and the others on that team (Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd) certainly worked their way into F1 the hard way. (Anyone else here remember March???) I certainly don't doubt that Max is doing what he believes is best for F1.



2) I think that Max's background as a barrister (lawyer) shows through in that much of what he says is deliberately obtuse and layered within measured many levels of nuance. His words never seem to lack for depth, and as a result often appear far more insightful after reflection, especially considering how much thought Max seems to put into them. But by the same token, he can't appear to be favoring anyone, so inevitably he loads on praises or slams to camouflage the true intent of his comments, or potentially approach a subject indirectly. (Bernie seems to do the same thing incidentally). You can't let yourself be snowed by that. For example, I doubt that his comment has as much to do with Hamilton as it does with driver parity throughout the field. If you really want to hear some hair-brained utterances about F1, you need to go back no further then Mr Mosely's predecessor, the frustratingly French Mr Jean Marie Balestre.

3) As far as the Lewis comment is concerned, I tend to agree with Max that the last thing that F1 needs as far as spectator interest is another "Overdog". I still believe that this is the very reason why Michael Schumacher was "put out to pasture" -- because it was pretty clear that there was only one driver who had any sort of a chance of racing him "heads-up", at that was Alonso. But the reality was that more often then not Schumacher would still win since he had built up the "total package", specifically the team, the technology and himself as the driver. Alonso has the driver part down, but hadn't demonstrated the ability to build the best team and technology around him. This is why I was a little curious why he left Renault for McLaren...

4) So far, Lewis Hamilton appears to have demonstrated that he has the driver part down. He's there (barring the occasional rookie mistake). As far as having the team around him at McLaren, that situation certainly appears to be the case. He's been nurtured by Ron Dennis for years, so he's undoubtedly McLaren's "Golden boy". Their technology can be as good as Ferrari's thanks to Mercedes (but strangely hot and cold), but it's not clear yet how much Lewis has directly or indirectly contributed to that. If you took Alonzo's testing input out of the team, would Hamilton have been as fast all year??? For example Schumacher was renowned for banging out the testing miles until the car was perfectly tuned for him, and he for the car. It's not clear if Hamilton has that ability, although he may have the will to do the miles (unlike Kimi...).

Ideally, I'd like to see Hamilton continue for another year at McLaren, with Alonzo returning to Renault -- a team that seemed perfectly suited to him. Then bring Michael Schumacher back in a Torro Rosso car next to Carpantier (OK, I'm dreaming. There are sooo many reasons that wouldn't happen!), or at least put Schumacher in as Team Manager at Ferrari to replace Jean Todt who's moving on to an FIA post. Maybe have Schumacher and Brawn be co-managers for the Scuderia Ferrari team.

So that's my guess for next year...
Hamilton and ??? at McLaren
Alonzo and Heikki Kovalainen at Renault
Kimi and Massa at Ferrari (With Schumacher and Brawn managing the team)