Watching from the touchlines you might be forgiven for thinking that the FIA president Max Mosley seems determined to hijack the most prestigious race on the calendar in his battle for survival. Mosley is only attending next Sunday's race at Monaco because he lives there as a tax exile.
Whatever he says his presence is an embarrassment to the royal family, but there's not much they can do about it. Mosley is quite clearly prepared to trample over anybody in his bid to survive.
I am also curious to know whether there is any real evidence that the general assembly of the FIA giving him a vote of confidence on June 3 will prevent CVC Capital partners from somehow selling on the commercial rights of the business. These are the same rights that the FIA under Mosley previously sold to Ecclestone for the ludicrously low figure of $309m for 100 years, and which the FIA’s embattled president has hinted might end up going astray if he’s not around to oversee things.
Max should be reminded that he's always said the FIA could invoke a clause by which the FIA could prevent any unsuitable entrepreneur buying the rights to the series.
With this in mind we must ask why Mosley seems to be so concerned about this now and is hinting that there might be a breach with Ecclestone. For those of us who have spent the last few decades on the inside of the F1 business, watching Bernie and Max operating in smooth concert together has been like witnessing a commercial version of synchronised swimming.
Or formation drowning, as it's known when it all goes wrong.