MAY 1, 1995

Mosley tells F1 to grow up

FIA President Max Mosley spoke out at Imola, saying that "the time has come when Formula 1 needs a more adult approach from the participants. "He cited the recent dispute over Superlicences as being "childish" and said it was "unfortunate that the World Champion Michael Schumacher should be involved in a "misunderstanding" about how much he may or may not weigh at any given moment on a race weekend. Mosley said: "It reflects poorly on the sport and, again, shows a lack of an adult attitude. "He went on to accuse Elf of similar childishness for pretending that its fuel had not been correct in Brazil. "One expects a reasonable standard of behaviour from a major international company. When they know something, they should admit it, and not keep a campaign going for nearly three weeks, notably in the French press,pretending something that everybody knew was not true. "Mosley went on to say that the FIA does not always get everything right, "but we do make honest attempts to do so, and I suggest that an honest and adult attitude to the sport is required. Everyone involved - the teams, the sponsors, the technical experts - must bear in mind that fundamentally this is a sport. It may involve a great deal of money, it may have huge commercial interests at stake. But the moment that anyone involved at the top of F1 is more interested in the money than he is in the result, the whole thing will collapse. The moment that this sporting element disappears, Formula 1 will become like any other commercial enterprise, and the sport will stop. "For as long as I am here, I am going to try to insist that it doesn't happen. "Mosley's comments make little sense until you put them into the perspective of the weekend, notably a meeting of team owners on Thursday evening followed by a dinner hosted by Mosley. We understand that there were bitter disagreements and considerable bickering in the meeting about the recent decision of the FIA International Court of Appeal about the Elf fuel in Brazil. This was followed by an unpleasant outburst during the dinner. Apparently, during the dinner, Benetton boss Flavio Briatore was saying that the standard of behaviour in F1 was getting worse. This caused Ken Tyrrell to express the opinion that Briatore was not the man to preach on the subject. And with this comment Tyrrell presented the irate Flavio with a list of the controversies which have surrounded Benetton in the last couple of years. Briatore lost his temper while Tyrrell declared that he wasn't really interested in racing against Briatore - or even people like Briatore.