The majority of Max Mosley's Silverstone press conference was given over to future engine regulations, energy storage devices and the like, but right at the end, in speaking of the proposed - and controversial - CDG wing, he stressed that the FIA wished to see more overtaking in the future. That was important, he said, and his words came strongly back to me on Sunday afternoon.
One doesn't wish to sound churlish, but for a while it has seemed that members of the governing body have had something of a change of heart when it comes to the question of overtaking. A traffic jam on the Road to Damascus, perhaps.
At some point in his life, inevitably, every politician says something he later regrets, comes out with words that return to haunt him. Mr Prescott on family values, that kind of thing. Max is extraordinarily astute, and rarely falls into this trap, but I suspect he wishes now he had never said, in answer to a question about the lack of overtaking in Formula 1, that he looked upon a grand prix as he would a chess match, where strategy and plotting were all.
Chess matches may well be enthralling for anyone directly involved, but fall short of that for those who merely watch. Indeed, sodium amytal apart, I can think of little more guaranteed to induce sleep, and when you buy tickets to a grand prix (perhaps through a building society), that is not what you seek.