OCTOBER 28, 2005

Mosley keeps power base solid

Sixteen of the 23 members of the World Motor Sport Council remain unchanged with President Max Mosley, Deputy President Marco Piccinini (the former sporting director of Ferrari) and three of the seven Vice-Presidents - Michel Boeri (Monaco), Nazir Hoosein (India) and Jacques Regis (France) - all retaining their former roles.

Sixteen of the 23 members of the World Motor Sport Council remain unchanged with President Max Mosley, Deputy President Marco Piccinini (the former sporting director of Ferrari) and three of the seven Vice-Presidents - Michel Boeri (Monaco), Nazir Hoosein (India) and Jacques Regis (France) - all retaining their former roles. The four Vice-Presidents who have moved on are Australia's John Large, America's Burdette Martin, Raphael Sierra (Argentina) and Carlos Gracia (Spain). In their places come Mosley supporters Hermann Tomcyzk (Germany) and Derek Ledger (Jordan) plus Jose Abed, a former organiser of the Mexican Grand Prix plus Uganda's Shekhar Mehta, a celebrated rally driver who is close to Mosley because of his efforts to organise rallying.

Large and Gracia remain as members of the World Council along with Jacek Bartos (Poland), Morrie Chandler (New Zealand), Vassilis Despotopoulos (Greece), Radovan Novak (Czech Republic), Lars Osterlind (Sweden) and Antonio Vasconelos Tavares (Portugal). Nick Craw (USA) comes in to replace Burdette Martin. New members are Paulo Eneas Scaglione (Brazil), Enzo Spano (Venezuela), Graham Stoker (GB) - who has previously served on the FIA International Court of Appeal, Surinder Thatti (Tanzania) and Japan's Masami Yamaguchi, who replaces former Japanese delegate Katsutoshi Tamura.

There are also new presidents of the Karting Commission and the Manufacturers' Commission so there will be two further new faces.

The significant people missing are longtime Mosley ally Henry Krausz (who originally represented the Dominican Republic but then switched to Venezuela). However he turns up in the new FIA Senate, representing Mexico. The other man who is missing is Turkey's Mumtaz Tahincioglu, a rising star in the FIA who had been expected to be one of the team. Perhaps he is out there planning his own team for four years from now.

There is a significant change on the Mobility and the Automobile side of the federation with AAA President Robert Darbelnet no longer in that position although he retains a seat on the World Council for Mobility and the Automobile. The new Deputy President for Mobility and the Automobile is Sebastian Salvado of the RACC in Spain, who also happens to sit on the F1 Commission as the representative of the Circuit de Catalunya.

The one nomination which may cause trouble is that of Hoosein because he is listed as India's representative, representing the Motor Sports Association of India (MAI). Since 2001 Hoosein has sat on the World Council representing China because the Indian government refused to recognise the MAI as the national sporting federation of India. This came about because Hoosein had been removed as India's FIA representative in August 1999 by the Federation of Motor Sport Clubs of India (FMSCI), which ruled that he was not helping the development of Indian motorsport. Hoosein then set up his own federation, which was rapidly recognised by the FIA but not by the Indian government.

It will be interesting to see if there will be any reaction from India.