He’s been lying low for a while, but this weekend he has stepped out of the shadows and once more into the limelight in Monaco, where he looks like being the star of this weekend’s F1 Grand Prix. He won’t be rubbing shoulders with Monagesque royalty, though. They, like other International personalities and prominent figures in F1, have disassociated themselves from him. There was a story in the press a few days ago saying that team bosses and sponsors are so anxious not to be seen in the same photograph as him, they have hired scouts to warn them if he’s getting too close!

It looks as if his love affair with Bernie is under strain because Max has written to the members of the FIA warning that if he does not complete his term in office, the FIA will fall apart and it will all be Bernie’s fault. Bernie has reacted by stamping his small but very powerful foot:

“Ecclestone said he is angry at a letter sent by Mosley to FIA clubs and said he has finally retracted all support for his beleaguered compatriot.

“Everybody’s wrong except him,” Ecclestone said.

“Everybody was involved in the orgy except him. He is just lashing out at anything he can. If he wants me to be the enemy he should be very careful because if he makes me an enemy I could make sure that he never whips anybody again.” AFP.

Ron Dennis, Mosley’s bête noire, was cleared of any involvement in the unmasking of Max’s little personal eccentricities, and it was revealed that the whistle-blower was one of the ladies on either end of the lash during the indoor games. Her husband, it turns out, was an officer in MI5, Britain’s internal Security Service, and he has been forced to resign from his job. Really, you couldn’t make it up!

Whether or not he manages to cling to his position following the Extraordinary General Meeting at the beginning of June, Max’s mandate expires in 2009, so it’s not as if he is fighting for a long-term career. If he had made a dignified exit from the scene once the orgy news broke, we’d have forgotten him by now. Presumably he is an intelligent man, so why on earth has he demeaned himself by ignoring the calls for his resignatio, and the clear signals sent that he is no longer wanted in F1? By doing so, he has assured that he will always be remembered as the man exposed in the News of the World for being involved in a sado-masochistic orgy with five hookers.