Max Mosley was born on April 13, 1940, and few figures did more to shape the political structure of modern Formula 1. He was not its most loved operator, but he was one of its most consequential.
Born in London in 1940, Mosley first entered Formula 1 through March Engineering, the team and constructor he co-founded in 1969. A trained lawyer as well as a former racing driver, he soon became far more important in boardrooms than in cockpits. That was where Formula 1’s real wars were being fought anyway.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Mosley became a key figure within FOCA, representing the constructors alongside Bernie Ecclestone and helping negotiate the first Concorde Agreement, the deal that helped define the sport’s commercial and political order. In that sense, he did not simply influence Formula 1 politics. He helped build the machinery.
His formal peak came later. Mosley was elected president of FISA in 1991 and then FIA president in 1993, serving until 2009. Across those years he became one of the sport’s dominant power figures, pushing hard on regulation, governance and safety, while rarely bothering to appear universally popular. Few people in Formula 1 politics ever do.
