[Stuart Hill]

There must be millions of modern-day Formula One fans wondering why FIA president Max Mosley and his FIA Vice-President for Promotional Affairs Bernie Ecclestone contine to succeed in their powerplay against the manufacturers and their demand of a bigger role in the control of the sport and, of course, a bigger slice of the pie. Those fans only need to look back to see where Max and Bernie got their education. Three decades earlier, Mosley and Ecclestone were heading the opposition against the FIA in a power struggle that makes the current battle for political and economical supremacy look like child’s play. It was the FISA-FOCA war of the early eighties, also known as the ‘FIASCO’ war.

In the end it didn’t turn out as a fiasco after all since almost all who remained involved became the better of it – not least financially. Anyone with a need to understand why the sport has become what it is now – a multi-million dollar circus that conquered the world with a televised package called the FIA F1 World Championship – should study its period of genesis, the war that killed off the old-school championship and ended in a highly profitable Pax Concordiana.

The number of parallels and contrasts between then and now is striking:

Read this for a good history lesson.