Formula 1

Ecclestone betting on Mosley

Bernie Ecclestone is putting his money on FIA president Max Mosley to win the regulations battle with McLaren and Williams. Ron Dennis and Frank Williams sent a letter last week to Mosley, saying that said they intended to take the FIA ...

Published: Feb 27, 2003, 8:24 PM

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Bernie Ecclestone is putting his money on FIA president Max Mosley to win the regulations battle with McLaren and Williams. Ron Dennis and Frank Williams sent a letter last week to Mosley, saying that said they intended to take the FIA to arbitration over new rules, which they feel threaten safety, and also disagreeing with the way the changes were implemented by F1's governing body.

Ecclestone told reporters: "You can be assured of one thing: I've known Max for 35 years and he wouldn't embark on something that he thought he couldn't win or wasn't in the right position to defend. So I've put my few dollars on him as it happens."

Ecclestone believes the teams only have themselves to blame for the situation because they couldn't come to any agreement left to their own devices: "The teams have all the opportunities in the world with all the commissions to really write all the regulations themselves and give them to the FIA to implement," he said.

"It's just a fact that they can't agree amongst themselves to do anything. Some teams are running with budgets of $400 million plus in some cases and others are trying to run with budgets of 60 or 70 million, which is still in my opinion much too much. So you can see how difficult it is for them to agree. The 'haves' want to spend more money because they want to race with money rather than with their talent."

Mosley recently responded to Dennis and Williams with a letter of his own, in which he argued their complaints were 'unfocused' and that they made no attempt to support their claims or offer alternative solutions. "Max is becoming pen friends with Frank and Ron, which is nice," Ecclestone commented wryly.

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