FIA President should carry on beyond the expiry of his current term in October, 2009, former Ferrari chief argues, his opinions flying in the face of the majority view within the sport.
Under-fire FIA President Max Mosley has received support from former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt - a man once tipped to replace him at the head of motorsport's world governing body.
There have been innumerable whispers in recent years that the Formula 1 hierarchy gives Ferrari preferential treatment over other teams, and a ringing endorsement from one of the Scuderia's most senior and well-respected members - particularly when the majority view within the paddock is that Mosley should resign, something he is staunchly refusing to do - is sure to raise yet more eyebrows.
"He is very intelligent and of rare elegance, a gentleman," Pitpass quotes Todt as having told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, adding that he had never been given any indications that Mosley was anti-semitic. That was the most controversial of the charges levelled at him by the News of the World, which last month published a front page exposé detailing what it claimed to be the 68-year-old's 'sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers'.
Todt himself is the son of a Jewish Pole, and he defended long-time friend Mosley's position by stressing that he was "astonished to see that things which have nothing to do with the importance of his job are being focussed on", agreeing with the line that what the FIA President does in his private life is completely divorced from and has no impact upon his professional capacity to rule the sport. The 62-year-old also sought to avoid the question of whether or not he is the favourite to replace Mosley, suggesting the Englishman should indeed continue in the role beyond the end of his current term in October, 2009.
"That is not the question," Todt urged when pressed as to whether he was in-line to step up to the position in the near future. "If you ask me whether I am happy with the actions of the FIA President in his job, I consider that he does very good work. Therefore I hope he will have the opportunity to continue his work for numerous years."
Meanwhile, Mosley - who is believed to have employed former News of the World editor and one-time PR advisor to Heather Mills, Phil Hall, to instruct him on public relations matters - is seeking to prevent the Sunday tabloid's video footage of his activity with the five prostitutes from being shown in France.
He has already proved unsuccessful in a similar attempt to get the 90-second clip banned in the UK, after High Court Judge Mr Justice Eady deemed that since the video had been so widely distributed, published on so many websites and viewed by so many people, there would be little worth in granting Mosley his desired injunction. He reasoned: "Although this material is intrusive and demeaning, and despite the fact that there is no legitimate public interest in its further publication, the granting of an order against this respondent at the present juncture would merely be a futile gesture."
Now, however, Mosley is aiming to put a stop to the footage being published on French websites or its stills being used in the country's newspapers. France is the home of the FIA, with the association's headquarters based in Paris.
An FIA hearing on 3 June will see a vote of confidence held on Mosley's future, whilst his legal action for 'unlimited damages' against News Group Newspapers is due to begin the following month.
