When Max Mosley first stood for the Presidency of the FIA he said that he would serve no more than two terms. He reckoned that it was a mistake to stay in a position of power for too long. It seems to me that some of his behaviour of late proves he was right.

Max has been in place for sixteen years and the only regular politicians who beat that tend to be the Beloved Father of some dire Third World Country. The President of the USA may serve no more than two terms. President Putin has to stand down next year though he could stand again in 2012. Democratic limitation has even reached Russia for the first time in its history.

In the UK there is no limitation though Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair served continuous terms of 13 and to years respectively. In both cases most people would reckon they outstayed their welcome.

Max was right all those years ago, being too long in the job can cloud one's judgement.

Take the appointment of an 'Equality Tsar' to oversee McLaren in Brazil. I bet there were times when Rubens Barrichello dreamed of such a person when he drove for Ferrari. Remember, it was Ferrari's use of team orders which led to their banning.

There was a time, when everything was made by hand, where two cars could be unequal though nominally made to the same specification. McLaren has made equal cars for more than twenty years.

When Team Lotus signed Ayrton Senna in 1985, the plan was to run Derek Warwick as Joint Number One. Senna vetoed that and it was not because he feared Warwick could challenge him, but because he knew that Lotus could not prepare a second car to top standard without losing something from his car.

Ayrton was happy to drive alongside Alain Prost at McLaren in 1988 because he knew they would have equal treatment. He wanted to measure himself against the best of his day and who actually was is still a great pub debate.

Given modern manufacturing techniques it is hard to see how McLaren could favour either driver. You would have to write a computer program, incorporating minute differences, and then run off a special batch of components. Even more difficult would be to keep that secret.

There have been very few cases of cars being sabotaged in motor racing. It has never been proven to be sabotage, but the brake pedal on Stirling Moss's Maserati broke after four miles in the 1957 Mille Miglia and Moss was pre-race favourite.

The white powder on a Ferrari at Monaco, which led to Nigel Stepney being accused of sabotage, sounds risible to me. White powder on a red car is a bit obvious especially since it could be wiped off with a Kleenex.