Mosley and Ecclestone move quickly to head off Formula One breakaway
FIA president Max Mosley and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone attended a Paris meeting amid a threat to take auto racing's premier series out from under the control of the international motor sport federation.
On the grid: Bernie Ecclestone in Paris today
Both men were part of Wednesday's meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris. FIA spokesman Richard Woods said earlier it was to discuss the world championships.
Ecclestone, president and chief executive of Formula One Management, said that Formula One may split from the FIA and set up a breakaway championship, adding: 'At the moment what we are trying to do, to keep the sponsors happy, is say we can't break away, but it could well be that that will happen.'
Mosley survived a vote of confidence at an extraordinary general meeting of FIA members in Paris earlier this month.
The meeting was called after he was exposed in a British tabloid taking part in sex acts with prostitutes that involved alleged Nazi role-playing. Mosley, who is suing The News of the World newspaper in British and French courts, had acknowledged hiring the prostitutes but denied there were any Nazi connotations.
