Max out or PS out

Minardus

From Crash.net:

Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart has threatened to put the team up for sale and walk away from the sport if Max Mosley refuses to step down from his role as president of the FIA.

The relationship between Mosley and the outspoken Australian has been strained for some time, but hit an all time low following the United States Grand Prix and the meeting of the World Motor Sport Council which followed - with Stoddart leading the cries for Mosley to resign over his handling of the affair when 14 cars withdrew from the Indianapolis race for safety reasons related to their Michelin tyres.

Speaking to Britain's News of the World newspaper, Stoddart again reiterated his belief that Mosley has to leave for F1 to stave off the threat of the rival Grand Prix World Championship.

"The teams have had a gutful of Max," Stoddart said. "Even if they do not say it publicly, they are saying it privately. Either he goes or F1 as we know it today will go. The message I send to Max is resign for your own sake and for that of F1.

"His position is untenable. He has got to resign but he won't and I think a breakaway series is guaranteed now."

Stoddart also added that, despite previously being a staunch supporter of the independent teams in Formula One, Mosley has become a victim of his own success.

"Max did a good job until 12 months ago [when he reversed his decision to resign]," Stoddart added. "He helped me survive in 2002 and has always been a strong supporter of the independent teams. But he has been a victim of his own success.

"The FIA has become a major empire that has grown too big for one person. It doesn't matter who replaces him. He is so bad now that anyone could do it.

"If Max does not resign then I am not staying in Formula One. Life is too short to be involved in this political s*** fight. The sport I love is being destroyed. That's it as far as I am concerned. I will finish this season off and see what happens."But if Max stays, I am going to put the team up for sale."

Uhmmm, I thought the team was already for sale (if someone with a good plan and a big bag of money presents himself)!!!!!
Maybe PS has found a potential buyer and is using Max as an excuse to sell of the Team !!!!!??:o

exzack

or maybe PS is just tired...

FlyingPanda

I think Max will call Paul's bluff on this one.

minardirule

It is also the News of the World which is highly unreliable and has a colouring in section for it's more intellectual readers

Ger

I see F1 Racing has this story also!

www.f1racing.net

Minardus

or maybe PS is just tired...

Nah,
if he was tired of it all, he wouldn't have gone to Paris last Wedsnesday only to stay outside before a closed door.

theweatherman

Maybe F1Racing read The News of The World?!!

or Vice Versa

Petroltorque

Yawn. So Stoddart wants to sell. Max is not going anywhere. Moseley is the quintessential poloitical operator, capable of poring oil onto troubled waters, then setting a blow torch to it!

viges

As Bernard once said, threats are pointless. Just do it or shut up.

Technically, everything is always for sale. We are talking about Stoddie here!

Petroltorque

I think I need specs! A thousand apologies for those typos! I'm on my way to Boots tomorrow!

Minardus

Grandprix.com:

Mosley and Stoddart
Max Mosley and his troops like to make fun of Paul Stoddart, calling him "a sad case" and trying to laugh him off as being a ridiculous figure. But the Minardi team boss is a danger to the FIA President - as he showed earlier this year in Australia.

Of all the team owners in F1 Stoddart is unusual because he does not have to worry about big sponsors, powerful figures in the automobile world or any of the other things that make the other F1 team owners less likely to rise up in rebellion.

The most dangerous people are those who are independent and have nothing to lose.

However, it is worth noting that when the Michelin teams gathered in Paris the other day, at the Ledoyen restaurant on the Champs Elysees, the people present drank a toast to Stoddart for his willingness to put himself in the firing line to represent the interests of the F1 teams.

At the French GP Stoddart was unusually quiet, leaving the political scene to the other team bosses and to the drivers.

Stoddart did, however, have a dinner for members of the British media and although we did not attend the event, it is clear that the Minardi team boss gave the troops a story for the days running up to the British GP, a period during which the sport receives much more attention than normal. Only the Monaco GP has a higher profile.

Stoddart's point was simple.

"The teams have had a gutful of Max," he said. "Either he goes or F1 as we know it today will go. It doesn't matter who replaces him. If Max does not resign then I am not staying in F1. Life is too short to be involved in this political s**t. That's it as far as I am concerned. I will finish this season off and see what happens. If Max stays, I am going to put the team up for sale."

Mosley will no doubt be delighted to hear that.

MCSF

Lets get our wallets out!

Lease

Funny how Bernie has stopped saying that Stoddart should sell up.

Max may be a political survivor and have great 'Old-School' afilliations, but there comes a point where you isloate a critical number of parties and the support just melts away.

At the moment, all of the insinuations that he is actually making private threats and public admonitions, leads one to conclude that there are in fact a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

Megalomania without the support enjoyed by the Demagogue puts one in the realm of the deluded.

MCSF

In English please.

oznomad

He's backed himself into a corner, and pissed off a lot of people in the meantime. He's lost his marbles, and he's on his own now.

MCSF

Are we talking Max or PS here?

oznomad

Max.

MCSF

Could have fooled me.