Mosley to Continue as FIA President

FIA president Max Mosley is set to be elected for a third term on Friday, when the general assembly of the Federation International de l'Automobile (FIA) will cast their vote for the presidency of Formula One's governing body.

The FIA holds representatives from 117 countries world-wide and overlooks motor racing as well as road motoring, primarily road car safety. Among its motor racing series, aside from Formula One, the FIA sanctions the World Rally Championship, Formula 3000, GT racing, touring cars, karting, truck racing, and more.

Mosley, the only known contender for this year's presidential elections, has been heading the FIA for ten years now, having first been elected at the end of 1991, replacing Jean-Marie Balestre. His tenure since was marked by hightened safety in Formula One, as well as controversial technical changes, primarily the switch to grooved tyres and more recently, the return of drivers' electronic aids.

Nevertheless, Mosley is considered one of the strongest leaders to ever run the FIA, since its inception in 1904. The organisation grew bigger under his realm, with more countries joining than ever before, and have sustained structural changes and withstood legal scutiny of the European Union. Only recently Mosley, a lawyer by profession, led to a settlement with the European Commission, over the running of the Formula One World Championship.

With all these accomplishments behind, Mosley looked initially set to retire at the end of his current term. In a press conference held at Imola in 1999, Mosley stated: "As I feel at the moment, if I last until October 2001 that will be it; I will think very carefully before standing for a third time because it is actually wrong for people to do these jobs for too long."

Nevertheless, Mosley told Atlas F1 in April 2000 that he will, after all, run for the third time, seeing him hold the position for five more years, until the end of 2006. This in turn means he will see out the term of the current Concorde agreement with the F1 constructors, which is scheduled to expire in 2007. Likewise, commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone has made it known he plans to retire from his active role in 2007 as well.

With these three events taking place at the same time, as well as tobacco advertising set to be banned as of 2007, Formula One is destined to shift into unfamiliar territory, and with carmakers already stating their intent to launch a new rivaling motor racing series, Mosley's upcoming tenure will thus be marked by intensified work towards uniting the sport and smoothing the differences. Either way, it will be the closing of an era.