Paris (AFP)

A lawyer with a heavy name to become the all-powerful boss of the paddocks, Max Mosley, who died on Monday at the age of 81, was one of the most influential figures in Formula 1 history until his hasty exit from the circuit in 2009 after a sex scandal.

Architect of modern F1, the British duo formed by Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, the latter of whom remained at the head of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) for 26 years, transformed a fledgling competition into an oiled and globalized cash machine on which he reigned supreme until the affair of the "Nazi orgy" revealed by News of the World.

At the height of the tandem's stranglehold on auto racing, in 2008, the now defunct tabloid broadcasts photos and video of a sado-masochism session between Mosley and five young prostitutes speaking German.

Some in striped prison clothes, others in uniform, notably that of the Luftwaffe.

A table that is not in the best taste for the world of F1.

Even less when we know that Max's father, Oswald Mosley, founded the British Union of Fascists party in 1932.

And that his mother Diana Mitford remained until his death (in 2003) an admirer of Adolf Hitler, invited to the secret wedding of the parents of Max Mosley at Joseph Goebbels in 1936.

Proof of his grip, Max Mosley manages despite everything to hang on until the end of his mandate, completed in 2009. Helped by the High Court of London which had denied any Nazi character to the "orgy" in July 2008.

- A cursed name -

Pushed towards the pit lane, he launched into a legal battle against Google and in 2015 obtained from the search engine the total withdrawal of images that violate his privacy.

The last feat of arms of this aristocrat arrived in the seat of a single-seater following a revelation at Silverstone in 1961. "I knew instantly this was something I absolutely had to do" , he says in his autobiography.

After a career as an anonymous driver, which nevertheless went through the European Formula 2 Championship, Mosley co-founded and managed the March team in F1 (1969-1977), happy to find an environment where his name was not not an obstacle.

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"My dad said I would probably go bankrupt but it would be + an experience for serious business later," Mosley recalls in his memoir.

The announced ruin is not at the rendezvous but "the company has been a financial headache from day one", he admits in 2003 in journalist Alan Henry's book devoted to Mosley and Ecclestone.

He, the man with the damned name who dreamed of being a minister, had the fixed idea of ​​inflating the income of the stables: he founded, in the company of "Bernie", the Foca (Formula One Constructors Association) in 1974 to defend their interests against the International Motor Sport Federation (Fisa).

He became its full-time legal adviser in 1977 and played a major role in the elaboration of the Concorde agreements which settled the conflict between Foca and Fisa.

The text offers teams the management of the lucrative commercial rights of F1.

- Safety turning point -

Ever more influential, Mosley was elected in 1991 at the head of Fisa and then of the FIA ​​after their merger in 1993 and then governed Formula 1, the World Rally Championship and motorsport in general.

The aristocrat will be renewed three times before withdrawing his bow, under pressure, in October 2009.

Beyond the explosion of F1 revenues and its globalization - with the introduction of the Malaysian GP in 1999, Bahrain and China in 2004, Turkey in 2005 and Singapore in 2008 - security will remain the focus. one of Mosley's legacies, whose first term was marked by the tragic weekend at Imola in May 1994 and the sudden death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.

The reforms undertaken will allow F1 to escape another fatal accident until that of Jules Bianchi in 2014 and will continue in production cars with the creation of the Euro NCAP body - and its famous crash tests - co-founded by the FIA.

It was again under his leadership that F1 took a timid ecological turn with the introduction of Kers, a system for recovering kinetic energy during braking, in 2009.

“In the end,” Mosley concludes in his memoir, “I think I was able to achieve a lot more things politically with the FIA ​​than I could have done on the British political scene.”

© 2021 AFP