Formula One and Beyond Read online

  FORMULA ONE

  AND BEYOND

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © 2015 by Max Mosley

  This book is copyright under the Berne convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  All rights reserved.

  The right of Max Mosley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

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  222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London WC1X 8HB

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

  Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Hardback: 978-1-47115-019-7

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-47115-021-0

  Every reasonable effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. If any have inadvertently been overlooked, the publishers would be glad to hear from them and make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

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  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

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  To Jean, Alexander and Patrick

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE

  ACRONYMS

  1 Growing up

  2 Oxford and after

  3 The Bar and racing

  4 International Formula Two

  5 The first year of March

  6 A difficult business

  7 Some progress

  8 A last year with March

  9 FOCA: the early days

  10 FOCA versus the CSI

  11 Balestre takes over

  12 The FOCA–FISA war

  13 The Concorde Agreement

  14 Bernie builds his business

  15 A peace of sorts

  16 An attempt at UK politics

  17 Back to motor sport and FIA elections

  18 Bernie’s £1 million donation and more politics

  19 The commercial rights to Formula One

  20 The car manufacturers get involved

  21 The sport: far more than Formula One

  22 Mainly work – but not entirely

  23 Imola 1994: Senna’s death and its effect

  24 Conflict in Formula One

  25 More trouble in Formula One

  26 A breakaway?

  27 Resignation

  28 Money and the Formula One teams

  29 Cheating

  30 Crashing the car industry

  31 Global road safety

  32 Trouble with the EU Commission

  33 The News of the World

  34 Mosley v News Group Newspapers

  35 Strasbourg

  36 Exposing a criminal enterprise

  37 Leveson and after

  APPENDIX: How the FIA works

  INDEX

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  PREFACE

  When in 1969 I decided to abandon a promising career as a lawyer and go into motor racing, my father said I’d probably go bankrupt but it would be ‘good training for something serious later on’. Bankruptcy was narrowly avoided, and the motor racing did ultimately evolve into something very serious. Controversy was inevitable and a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the web and in print. I believe the time has come to tell what really happened, hence this book.

  Primarily it’s the inside story of Formula One and its evolution since the 1960s. Much of it is not generally known and some not known at all. Part describes some of the many business and political conflicts along the way; part is how we reduced the risks for motor sport participants (and later for all road users); and part sets out to explain how Formula One made Bernie Ecclestone very rich (or perhaps it was the other way round).

  Although mainly about motor sport, particularly Formula One, it is also an account of serious political work in the EU on passenger car safety and the environment, as well as a major conflict with the EU Commission’s Competition Directorate. It describes how we used Brussels politics and lobbying to bring about important changes to road cars and road safety generally, and how it all started with Formula One.

  Motor sport is not for everyone so I have tried to explain what happened and why in a way the non-enthusiast will readily understand and I hope find interesting. Also included is an outline of my life before starting in Formula One, including an attempt to explain why, together with many friends who I think were otherwise sane individuals, I was prepared to accept the appalling risks of driving racing cars in the 1960s.

  Many different activities took place simultaneously; for example, the Formula One controversies that happened at the same time as Brussels politics. I thought it best to split the topics broadly into separate chapters without worrying too much about overall chronology. I hope this approach will be useful for those who may be interested in some parts of the story but perhaps not all of it.

  The final chapters contain an account of an unprovoked attack by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World. It felt like being mugged on the street and I decided to hit back, hoping at the very least to make it more difficult for his newspapers to do anything similar to others in the future. Apart from defeating them in the courts, I explain how I was later able to help uncover serious criminality at the newspaper.

  Inevitably, I’ve had to leave a lot out. It would be possible to write several books on the material. If I went into all the detail, the result would be longer still. Nevertheless, the salient information, at least most of what I have been able to remember or find in contemporaneous documents, notes and writings, is here. I hope and think I have covered all the questions that matter.

  It may seem strange that there is no account of my family life. My wife and family are mentioned when directly relevant to the story but not otherwise. The reason is we have always been very private and want to keep it that way. Both my wife Jean and my surviving son Patrick have said they would prefer our family life to be left out. I agree with them and have respected their wishes.

  A number of people have helped me by looking at my account of events they were involved in and adding to, and in some cases correcting, my memories. I am very grateful to Pierre de Coninck, Dominic Crossley, Ken Daly, Alan Donnelly, Robin Herd, Mike Kingston, Stephen Kinsella, Jean Mosley, Patrick Mosley, Adam Parr, Marco Piccinini, Tony Purnell, David Reeves, David Ward, Charlie Whiting, Richard Woods and Peter Wright for taking so much trouble. I am particularly grateful to Maurice Hamilton for checking the motor racing facts and giving me valuable advice on the overall structure; to Robert Skidelsky, who very kindly looked at the manuscript as someone not involved with motor sport and helped me greatly in my attempts to make the motor sport sections comprehensible; and to my PA, Pat Tozer, who took on the task of sorting out the huge quantity of disordered files, photographs and press cuttings I had accumulated. Finally, Ian Marshall at Simon & Schuster recognised the need for some work on my English and the overall structure, and I am very grateful to him as well as to Rob Bagchi, Lorraine Jerram and Katie Thraxton who between them greatly improved it. After all that, the mistakes that remain are mine alone.

  ACRONYMS

  AA

  Automobile Association

  AAA

  American Automobile Association

 
; ACCUS

  Automobile Competitions Committee for the United States

  ACEA

  Association des Constructeurs Européens d’Automobiles

  ACN

  Automobile Club Nationale: motoring club also holding the sporting power

  ACO

  Automobile Club de l’Ouest

  AIT

  Alliance Internationale de Tourisme

  ANWB

  Royal Dutch Touring Club

  ASN

  Association Sportive Nationale: club with sporting power only

  BBM

  Bureau Permanent International des Constructeurs d’Automobiles

  CanAm

  North American race series 1966–87

  CATARC

  China Automotive Technology & Research Centre

  CEO

  Chief Executive Officer

  CFO

  Chief Financial Officer

  CSI

  Commission Sportive Internationale (later FISA)

  DFT

  Department for Transport (UK)

  DFV

  Double four valve (Cosworth F1 engine)

  ECU

  Electronic control unit

  ERTICO

  Intelligent Transport Systems Europe

  ESC

  Electronic stability control

  F1

  Formula One

  F2

  Formula Two: single-seat racing cars under F1

  F3

  Formula Three: single-seat racing cars under F2

  FFSA

  Fédération Française du Sport Automobile

  FIA

  Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile

  F1CA

  F1 Constructors’ Association (early name of FOCA)

  FIFA

  Fédération Internationale de Football Association

  FIM

  Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme

  FISA

  Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile

  FOCA

  Formula One Constructors’ Association

  FOTA

  Formula One Teams’ Association

  FVA

  Four valve A series (1960s Cosworth F2 engine)

  GP

  Grand Prix

  GP2

  Single-seat racing series just below F1

  GPDA

  Grand Prix Drivers’ Association

  GPWC

  Grand Prix World Championship

  Group A

  Road cars modified for competition

  Group B

  Road-going cars built for competition

  Group C

  Two-seat racing cars

  IOC

  International Olympic Committee

  IP

  Intellectual Property

  IPCC

  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

  IPO

  Initial Public Offering

  IRAP

  International Road Assessment Programme

  IT

  Information Technology

  Kart

  Miniature racing car with no bodywork

  Karting

  Kart racing

  KERS

  Kinetic Energy Recovery System

  MEP

  Member of the European Parliament

  MOT

  Ministry of Transport test (UK)

  NASCAR

  National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (American)

  NCAP

  New Car Assessment Programme

  NHRA

  National Hot Rod Association (American)

  NHTSA

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (USA)

  OAS

  Organisation de l’armée secrete

  RAC

  Royal Automobile Club

  SMMT

  Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders

  SO

  Statement of Objections (EU)

  Sports Prototype

  Modern version of Group C

  STP

  An oil and fuel additive for cars

  TRL

  Transport Research Laboratory (UK)

  WADA

  World Anti-Doping Agency

  WCR

  World Championship Racing: an association of race organisers

  WMSC

  World Motor Sport Council

  WRC

  World Rally Championship

  1

  GROWING UP

  My parents, Oswald and Diana Mosley, were imprisoned shortly after my birth in 1940 under a wartime regulation that allowed the government to lock anyone up without the need for a trial. After serving as a minister in the 1929 Labour government during his relatively brief career in conventional politics, my father had led the British Union of Fascists and campaigned strongly against the Second World War. I believe this campaign was the main reason the government wanted him out of the way. My mother had supported him, and (unlike my father) she and her sister Unity were also friendly with Adolf Hitler.

  About a year after they were first interned my parents were moved into accommodation together in a wing of Holloway Prison along with other interned couples. The then prime minister, Winston Churchill, was a close friend of my mother’s family, and he and his wife had known her since childhood. He also knew my father well from his days in mainstream politics and would have appreciated that neither of them would ever have acted against their country’s interests, despite their strong opposition to the war. Party politics prevailed and some of his coalition partners had scores to settle, but Churchill did what he could to make their lives less disagreeable.

  My parents’ imprisonment made very little difference to me. Our family was one of those where children were handed over to a nanny and saw their parents once a day at most. Nanny Higgs looked after my older brother Alexander and me and had already been with my mother’s first two children, Jonathan and Desmond Guinness, in the 1930s. The only unusual feature in my case was visiting my parents in Holloway Prison rather than in the drawing room at teatime. While my parents were interned we stayed with my aunt, Pamela Jackson, my mother’s sister and the most conventional of the six Mitford sisters.

  I sometimes stayed overnight at the prison with my parents and can remember the high walls and ash pathways, and hearing bombs falling on London. Being a small child it never occurred to me there was anything odd about all this. In November 1943 they were released and bought a house at Crux Easton in Hampshire. The war was still on and the house was under some sort of flight path. A plane crashed near the house one night, so close my father went round checking that everyone was all right. Later, we would go and play with remnants of the plane in the crater. On another occasion, out for a walk with Nanny Higgs, two planes collided overhead, one crashing in a field nearby, the other some distance away. My father and some men armed with fire extinguishers raced off on a lorry, but came back to report the pilot had been killed. It affected him greatly because he himself had flown during the First World War.

  Quite soon my parents found Crowood, a much larger house with 1100 acres near Ramsbury in Wiltshire. One of the conditions imposed on my father on release from prison was a restriction on buying a large tract of land. I’m not sure why. Someone said perhaps they feared he would build an aerodrome for the Germans. In practice, though, it was difficult to stop him buying a large estate because there was no legal basis for such a spurious stipulation. As a result, we arrived there in 1944, not long after my fourth birthday.

  It was a big house about a mile from the village, set back from the road and surrounded by its own fields. Behind it was a small wood that led to another wood of about 100 acres which were wonderful places for a child to explore and get lost in.

  Both my parents had been married before, my mother to Bryan Guinness, my father to Cynthia Curzon. My mother had two sons, my father two sons and a daughter from their first marriages. The four boys all went to Eton with var
ying success. Of the four, only Nicholas was old enough to fight in the war, which he did with great distinction, winning the MC. The two Guinness boys and the younger Mosley were all at Eton during and after the war. Michael Mosley became captain of the Oppidans, apparently an important position in the Eton schoolboy hierarchy. Aged five or six, I was taken to Eton to visit my half-brothers. At that early age it struck me as a very sinister place for some reason and I asked my parents never to send me there. They didn’t, and in retrospect perhaps that was a mistake on my part. I shall never know.

  Summer holidays were spent on Inch Kenneth, a small island off the Isle of Mull that belonged to the Mitford grandmother, Sydney Redesdale. My first visit was in the summer of 1945, just after the war had ended. Unity Mitford, my aunt, was staying there. She had been in Munich on the morning of 3 September 1939 when Britain declared war on Germany and, being friendly with Hitler, was very distressed. She shot herself in the head but surprisingly did not die and was eventually repatriated via Switzerland. The bullet wound left her with brain damage from which she died in 1948.

  When we arrived on the island, a German warship was moored nearby, presumably waiting for orders as the war was over. One day my aunt Unity set out in a rowing boat with just me as passenger, drew alongside the warship and started talking to the sailors in German. I don’t know what was said but she may well have been expressing support for Hitler. The sailors seemed relaxed and amused but very surprised at this strange visit.