Former world champion slams F1

South African ex-motor racing world champion Jody Scheckter has condemned the Formula One circus as “a whole big dictatorship” and called for a major overhaul of its structure.

Scheckter, the 1979 F1 World Drivers Champion, launched a fierce attack on the way the sport is run and some of the key personnel behind it. His criticisms, just days before the climax to the 2008 season as Briton Lewis Hamilton attempts to clinch the Drivers’ Championship for McLaren at the Brazilian Grand Prix this Sunday, will find many supporters in the increasingly controversial world of Formula One racing.

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Jody Scheckter had an eight year career in the sport which included ten titles. He remains a passionate follower of the F1 circus from his English home but admits “I don’t like the way Formula One has gone.

“It’s now a whole big dictatorship. If you don’t support it, you find yourself on the outside. It now needs a radical overhaul of its structure. I don’t like what is happening within the Formula One spectacle, it is disgraceful.”

Most of the blame for the mess, according to Scheckter, should be attributed to FIA President Max Moseley, the man who controversially kept his job earlier this year after lurid allegations of Nazi-orientated sexual orgies involving prostitutes at a London abode.

Scheckter said “Moseley is the problem.

“What people do in their private lives is their business but not when you have a background like his. Once you get exposed like that, whether it’s right or wrong, there is no industry I know of where you would survive. That shows how wrong the system is in Formula One. It is incredible Moseley got away with it. In any walk of life where that happened, except F1, the guy would have had to step down.

“At least Bernie Ecclestone is supposed to be a businessman although he does what he wants to do.”

How involved is Scheckter these days? “I go to the races and try to enjoy it. I watch the races but I don’t like what’s happening because they are such dictators. They are not managing it in a fair way. F1 was always the ultimate technological challenge and the ultimate challenge against each other. But they are destroying it.

“What happened to McLaren (with their fine over alleged use of secret material relating to the Ferrari last year) was disgraceful. They were fined $100m or something for doing something unheard of. And this season, the fines and penalties Lewis Hamilton has had have been ridiculous. That is why I hope he clinches the title this time, he deserves it.”

This week’s news that Ferrari could yet pull out of F1 over the threat by the sport’s governing body to introduce standardised engines, confirmed Scheckter’s views. “The sport is much softer than it was, technically less difficult. But for me, that was the exciting part. Drivers have less freedom now although more tools.”

Scheckter drove for McLaren, Tyrrell, Wolf and Ferrari. Which team did he enjoy working for most? “The first year with Wolf was great but I’d have to say overall Ferrari. The difference is, you are racing for the country, not the team.”

It is a point that will not be lost on Ferrari driver Felipe Massa as he attempts to snatch the title from under Hamilton’s nose this Sunday, despite starting seven points behind the Englishman at the top of the driver’s table.