Taking It To The Max

Monday 31st March 2008

Max Mosley has been described by the News of the World as indulging in a five-hour orgy and performing sado-masochist acts with five women. That's the kind of hospitality you won't see in an F1 motorhome...

If the story in the News of the World is to be believed then the FIA is headed by a practising sadomasochist with Nazi tendencies. And if we hadn't seen the pictures then we wouldn't have believed it either. Bernie Ecclestone had very much the same reaction when told the news (or did he buy the newspaper and check it out himself?).

So far we have seen no denial from Max Mosley that he likes to spend his time with highly-paid dominatrix, giving out and receiving punishment and acting out bizarre role play. However since the story was revealed in the British Sunday newspaper, the photos of "spanking Max" that adorned the item on the website have disappeared.

The story remains, though, which would seem to indicate that although the photos were an invasion of Max's privacy - they couldn't get him to sign a model release form - the facts are not in dispute.

If you thought that Stepneygate was bizarre, then this episode puts F1 scandals into a whole new realm.

ITV race pundit Martin Brundle, who had a libel action levelled against him by the FIA last year, has called it inappropriate behaviour for the head of a large public organisation. That's putting it mildly.

Certainly the phrase: "She needs more of ze punishment!" that Max allegedly yells in what the paper describe as a 'five hour torture chamber video' is going to become a regular in the Planet-F1 office.

To see the head of one of the largest sporting bodies in the world, trussed up in bondage gear and receiving a good strapping from a woman in leather is a sight most people in the paddock would not have anticipated. Once seen, never forgotten.

Now if it were simply the sex angle, then it might, just might, have been escapable. The British have long been fans of the eccentric upper class toff exhibiting saucy behaviour. Back in the 1970s there was a court case with The Spanking Colonel who used to lure women back to his cabin cruiser to spank their bottoms. When one complained about the colonel's buttock-beating antics he was hauled up in court. Everyone had a good laugh and the case was dismissed.

However the element of prison guard/prisoner role play with Max barking instructions in German, has all the wrong connotations, given that Adolf Hitler was a witness at his parents' wedding and that Aunty Unity formed such a strong bond with the Fuhrer that Eva Braun got jealous.

It is this element to the story that has a lot of people agitated. "How," they ask, "can Max complain about racist Fernando Alonso fans abusing the one black driver in F1 in Barcelona when he's behaving in such an abominable way himself?" - albeit in private.

There is of course an argument that what Max gets up to in his leisure hours is his own business and he should be free from interference to enjoy it. There is also another argument from people who say that they like to watch F1 in their leisure hours and they wish it was free from interference from Max.

Certainly if the story proves to be true it will be one of the most spectacular humiliations of a public figure since the Profumo scandal of the 1960s. Max needs to prove that this is one of the greatest fakes of all time. Otherwise he will lose all credibility.

How can anyone sit in a meeting with him with a straight face after: "She needs more of ze punishment!"

What is interesting is that neither the ITV website or the BBC website want to touch the story. Yet it could have the most profound effect on F1 in the future.

Max explained after Stepneygate that it would have been okay if Mclaren had told the whole truth straight away, but instead they fudged around the issue and covered things up. So now we look forward to the Mosley approach where Max spares us no details of his Friday afternoon sessions over the years.

He's due in Bahrain this weekend, which should be a fascinating experience for everyone concerned. Previously when there has been controversy in the air Max has failed to turn up at GPs where he has been due to give a press conference, citing flight scheduling problems.

If that were the case this weekend then we're pretty sure that Ron Dennis would be willing to lend him a ride in his private jet.

That's the least he could do.

Andrew Davies

Post to del.icio.us

E-mail Article Print-Friendly Version Subscribe to Off On F1 RSS Feed