APRIL 13, 2005

Happy birthday Mr President

Sixty-five years ago today Max Mosley made his first appearance on this earth. The son of Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Diana Mitford, he has been making headlines ever since. Despite the fact that he has now reached the age at which he can draw a state pension in the UK and enjoy concessions on public transport, it is not expected that this landmark will have much of an effect on the lifestyle of the FIA President: Mosley is not regularly spotted on London buses, flies on an FIA jet and lives in Monaco where life is not too taxing. His health appears to be fine and we hear that the FIA President spent last weekend skiing in the Alps in the company of none other than Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire boss of Red Bull.

It is no great surprise therefore to hear that Red Bull Racing will almost certainly be sending a representative to Mosley's meeting on Friday in Paris. Some of the other teams have been under considerable pressure in recent days to attend the meeting. The latest count we have suggests that Ferrari will definitely be there; Red Bull Racing will probably be there; Jordan may be there but no-one else will be present.

We hear that the pressure being put on his teams has come mainly from Formula One Management, which is looking for a quick solution to the problems now that the banks involved have won more control of the business.

Our spies tell us that the two American banks are pushing hardest for a deal with the teams.