Ecclestone mourns death of Mosley

LONDON • Max Mosley, the former president of motor sport's world governing body International Automobile Federation (FIA), has died aged 81, former Formula One supremo and fellow Briton Bernie Ecclestone announced yesterday.

Mosley studied at Oxford University, where he read physics, but later trained as a lawyer and became a barrister, whose specialism was patent and trademark law. His love of motor racing began in his youth and he was involved in Formula 2 for Brabham and Lotus before retiring in 1969.

Mosley became the FIA president in 1993 after serving in previous administrative roles in motor sport, including within F1 and served three terms as president before standing down in 2009. He had been suffering from cancer.

Ecclestone said: "Max was like family to me. We were like brothers. I am pleased in a way because he suffered for too long."

Mosley was the son of 1930s British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. In 2008, he won a privacy case against the defunct News of the World tabloid after it printed photographs and published video of his involvement in a sadomasochistic sex session.

It was reported by the daily as a "sick Nazi orgy" but the judge found no evidence of Nazi themes in his judgment.

He also said there was no public interest defence in the clandestine recording of the session.

Mosley experienced a family tragedy in 2009, when his son Alexander died aged 39, with he coroner ruling the death as down to non-dependent drug abuse.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE