Of course, he referred to some controversial moments in his last mandate, mainly the several “gates” that happened through the last couple of years. And the famous spy-gate made no exception, as it was practically then that his relationship with McLaren's boss Ron Dennis started to deteriorate.
Mosley admitted that he was in fact all for a complete ban from the sport for the McLaren Mercedes outfit, only the members of the World Motor Sport Council argued against his decision. The arguments against a ban and for a large fine were both sport-related (battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton was too beautiful to miss) and social-related (leaving more than 1000 employees without a job for a year and a half).
“The only safe thing would have been to exclude them from 2007 immediately and also from the 2008 championship. But with little or no income for 18 months and over 1,000 employees, their situation would have been dire. A ban would also have destroyed the great championship battle which was going on between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen,” wrote Mosley in the aforementioned newspaper.
“I was for a ban. I understood the consequences but I believe in the old legal maxim "hard cases make bad law". But I was outvoted (so much for the accusations of dictatorship) and the council went for a very large ($100 million) fine instead. McLaren did not appeal. No doubt they realised that the ICA would almost certainly substitute a ban for the fine,” added the former FIA president.
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