» Another Mosley tirade!

According for former FIA ~~Dictator~~ President Max Mosley, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemelo is a “weak character” whose team wouldn’t be winning races using the same budget as its rivals.

So is the opinion of the former head of the world’s motorsports’ governing body, in an exclusive interview to be published in the upcoming edition of F1 Racing magazine, which goes on sale today in Europe and will hit the news stands in Australia on 5 May.

With comments guaranteed to spill even more bad blood between Mosley and Ferrari, he said: "Luca is very, very good with people and he’s certainly a very personable, pleasant person, but, in my opinion, he’s also a very weak character so he’s easily led."

Ouch! It goes on…

Max’s comments came in conjunction with several revelations made in response to a reader’s question that asked if the FIA held a favourable attitude to Ferrari.

"We never did favour Ferrari, although there was this perception that we did. You could go to Ferrari and they would be completely honest and open with you; most of the other teams wouldn’t do that."

Mosley admitted, however, that the FIA made a hash of its handling of the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix, where Ferrari was disqualified – and later reinstated – for a technical infringement with its barge boards (pictured).

"They were legal if they were at a slight angle to the chassis and illegal if they were vertical," Mosley described the incident. "I think that they were probably vertical, but we took them off to look at them, and then Ferrari [said], ‘No, they were at a slight angle’, and they got off on that basis.

"We should have impounded the entire car, but you live and learn and we would never make that mistake again."

Indeed! That’s a fairly calamitous blunder!

Mosley also claimed that Ferrari was "not prepared to take on the other teams on an equal basis," and that it would not achieve the same level of success if operating on the same budgets as many of its rivals.

“We had a series of meetings [in 2008] and everyone was agreed on the cost-cap and the methodology – but Ferrari were always against it," said Mosley. "I think it’s because they know that if they had the same amount of money to spend as the other teams, they would fail."

This promises to be a very interesting issue. Our preview of the Australian edition will happen (hopefully) next week.

Stay tuned for Luca’s response! It’s sure to be a good one!

[Images via The Times Online and Atlas F1]