Mosley: It Would Have been Wrong to Quit

Max Mosley has said it would have been wrong to leave his post as FIA president this year, after announcing today he had backtracked from his decision to quit.

Mosley had said at the beginning of the month he would be stepping down as FIA president in October.

The International Automobile Federation said in a statement that the FIA Senate, consisting of eight of its most senior members, had met in London on Friday after calling on Mosley to stay in office at least until the end of his mandate in October next year.

The statement said that Mosley had told the Senate he had received approaches from all sections of FIA, motor racing's ruling body, and felt "bound to accede to the Senate's request."

Mosley has proposed radical new measures to cut costs and slow Formula One cars down. Part of the rule changes are set to be imposed for next season, and Mosley said it would not have been right to quit during the process.

"I am staying," Mosley told Reuters. "Everybody said you have got to stay. It got to the stage where it would have been wrong for the FIA. What they were saying is that you can't do something like that with so little notice. They need more time."

Mosley would not confirm whether he would stand for re-election after October 2005. "We will worry about that later," he said.

The president had publicly blamed squabbling Formula One team bosses and their inability to agree anything as a prime reason.

"I've got to the point where I no longer find it interesting or satisfying to sit in long meetings... where people often agree things and then go away and change their minds completely," he had declared at Magny-Cours on July 2.

"Sometimes one says to oneself 'Isn't it actually probably more fun to sit on the beach with an interesting book than to sit here having these discussions?"

Mosley had also ruled out staying on, declaring at the time: "I am not an F1 team principal so I don't change my mind every few minutes."

Asked about that particular comment on Friday, he said: "I suppose it is my old Formula One instincts coming out."