UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Mosley racist sex scandal claim

Is it a set-up?

Mar.31 (GMM) A spokesman for F1's governing body says FIA president Max Mosley is consulting with lawyers after he was alleged to be at the centre of a racist sex scandal.

The British tabloid News of the World depicted the 67-year-old, in hidden camera footage filmed at a London apartment, engaged in a Nazi death-camp role play orgy with five prostitutes.

"As far as the FIA is concerned, this is a matter between Mr Mosley and the newspaper," a spokesman said.

"We understand that Mr Mosley's lawyers are now in contact with that newspaper and the FIA has no comment," he added.

Especially in the context of the recent racist scandal involving Lewis Hamilton, and Mosley's hard-line response, Jewish groups condemned the Briton's alleged actions.

"As Mr Mosley has condemned the racism in motor sport, he should live up to the standards he sets," Holocaust Centre director Stephen Smith told the Times newspaper, calling on Mosley to apologise and quit.

In other British newspapers, Mosley's fellow F1 powerbroker and long time friend, Bernie Ecclestone, rejected the notion that Mosley should step down.

"I find it difficult to believe," the F1 chief executive is quoted as saying by the Guardian.

"It's his business but it sounds to me like a set-up. Has he in any way damaged F1? No."

Mosley's father was the notorious British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, whose wedding was attended by Adolf Hitler, but Ecclestone denied that Max is also racist.

"Knowing Max it might be all a bit of a joke rather than anything against Jewish people," he said, according to the Daily Mail.

"Assuming it's all true, what people do privately is up to them," Ecclestone told the Times of London.

Written: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:40:27