Scheckter Says Mosley Must Go

Jody Scheckter, who has Jewish roots, yesterday called for the FIA president, Max Mosley, to resign after revelations relating to the 67-year-old's private life were published in a Sunday newspaper. "There is absolutely no question in my mind that Mosley should resign," said the former world champion.

The News of the World published pictures of a man it identified as Mosley posing as a Nazi concentration camp commandant and spanking girls dressed as inmates. "From a purely motor racing point of view you can't have somebody like this running the sport," said Scheckter, "or any other sport come to that. I really think he ought to go and I would like to see the press having a concerted campaign to persuade him to do just that."

The 58-year-old South African retired from driving shortly after winning the 1979 world championship in a Ferrari.

The FIA said it had nothing further to add yesterday and no clarification was forthcoming as to its threatened legal action against the News of the World. It also remains to be seen whether Mosley accepts an invitation to attend this weekend's Bahrain grand prix.

Bernie Ecclestone, formula one's billionaire rights holder, believes Mosley should stay away from the race. "He should go, shouldn't he? The problem is he would take all the ink away from the race and put it on something which, honestly and truly, is nobody else's business anyway," he told the Times.

"The trouble is that Max will try and treat things as business as usual," said a team member who has known him for more than 30 years. "He knows that, if he brazens it out, there is a good chance he will survive. But this time he may have pushed things just a little too far."