MOSLEY'S 'EYES AND EARS' IN THE PADDOCK

+ Click to Enlarge JUDICIAL FUNCTION: Permanent chairman of F1 stewards Alan Donnelly at work in the jury room. As the ultimate judge of fact at any F1 race meeting it is crucial to the sport that he be seen as completely impartial.

June 17, 2009
By Alan Baldwin

Formula 1 teams have written to the governing IAF complaining about permanent chairman of F1 stewards Alan Donnelly and seeking a separation of his roles.

Donnelly, a former member of the European parliament, is also International Automobile Federation president Max Mosley's "eyes and ears" in the GP paddock when he isn't there.

He oversees the race stewards, who have been busy this season with controversies involving the rear diffuser on the winning Brawn cars and a furore involving McLaren and World champion Lewis Hamilton, who were punished for "deliberately misleading" the officials.

The eight members of the Formula One Teams' Association, in a stand-off with Mosley over the 2010 rules and the governance of the sport, wrote to the IAF head last Saturday complaining of a conflict of interest.

"It was apparent during the Turkish GP that Donnelly held discussions with several F1 team representatives with a clear intention to create division between the Fota teams by misrepresenting the positions of those teams," declared the letter, signed by the team bosses.

"This situation raises serious doubts about the autonomy of the judicial functions from the executive functions of the IAF. These need to be separated for proper governance of the federation," it added.

"In the IAF's role as regulator it is imperative that the chairman of the stewards remain totally impartial and we therefore request that these roles be separated."

Donnelly was not available for comment but an IAF spokesman said the governing body "utterly rejects the suggestion made by Fota in their recent correspondence". - Reuters