Max Mosley renegging on promise to step down?

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Formula One waters, Max Mosley goes and sends a nasty-gram to Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) chairman and Ferrari head honcho Luca di Montezemolo threatening to back out of his promise to step down from his throne as leader of the FIA if he doesn't get a full apology ASAP.

It seems that Mosley is none too pleased by the way that FOTA have portrayed the events leading to the agreement between the teams and the FIA to run the 2010 Formula 1 season as previously scheduled. Says Mosley:
If you wish the agreement we made to have any chance of survival, you and FOTA must immediately rectify your actions. You must correct the false statements which have been made and make no further such statements. You yourself must issue a suitable correction and apology at your press conference this afternoon... [G]iven your and FOTA's deliberate attempt to mislead the media, I now consider my options open. At least until October, I am president of the FIA with the full authority of that office.
There's plenty more where that came from. Click past the break to read Max Mosey's letter to Luca di Montezemolo in its entirety.

[Source: Axis of Oversteer | Photo: makeroadssafe CC 2.0]

LETTER:

Dear Luca

We made a deal yesterday in Paris to end the recent difficulties in Formula 1. A fundamental part of this was that we would both present a positive and truthful account to the media. I was therefore astonished to learn that FOTA has been briefing the press that Mr. Boeri has taken charge of Formula 1, something which you know is completely untrue; that I had been forced out of office, also false; and, apparently, that I would have no role in the FIA after October, something which is plain nonsense, if only because of the FIA statutes.

Furthermore, you have suggested to the media that I was a "dictator," an accusation which is grossly insulting to the 26 members of the World Motor Sport Council who have discussed and voted all the rules and procedures of Formula 1 since the 1980s, not to mention the representatives of the FIA's 122 countries who have democratically endorsed everything I and my World Motor Sport Council colleagues have done during the last 18 years.

If you wish the agreement we made to have any chance of survival, you and FOTA must immediately rectify your actions. You must correct the false statements which have been made and make no further such statements. You yourself must issue a suitable correction and apology at your press conference this afternoon.

Formula 1 is run entirely by our 25-strong team without any help from me or any other outsider. There was no need for me to involve myself further in Formula 1 once we had a settlement. Equally, I had a long-standing plan not to seek re-election in October. It was therefore possible for me to confirm both points to you yesterday.

However, given your and FOTA's deliberate attempt to mislead the media, I now consider my options open. At least until October, I am president of the FIA with the full authority of that office. After that it is the FIA member clubs, not you or FOTA, who will decide on the future leadership of the FIA.

Your sincerely
Max Mosley

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