PRESSURE is mounting within Formula One for FIA president Max Mosley to quit in the wake of his alleged participation in a Nazi-themed orgy. It is bad enough that Mosley has attracted so much unseemly publicity, but his antics could lead to one or both of the Japanese manufacturers, Toyota and Honda, using it as an excuse to withdraw from a sport on which they have spent billions of pounds for what has been a minimal return. On top of that, leading figures within F1 have also insisted the time has come for him to go.

Some teams admit off the record that they have been contacted by sponsors unhappy at being associated with the current publicity. Toyota have come under particular pressure from shareholders questioning the value the company gets from being associated with F1. Since coming into the sport in 2002, Toyota have spent well over £1billion on their F1 team without winning a grand prix. So far, the racing division’s argument that simply being on the grid is important to the corporate image and ensures they sell many more cars than would otherwise be the case has been just strong enough to carry the day.

New team principal Tadashi Yamashina, however, admits that he has been given only two more years to deliver results. Although this season’s form has been an improvement on last year, there is little prospect of them beating Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes or BMW.

While social embarrassment has not yet forced Mosley to resign as FIA president, he may well be forced do so when European royalty joins that of the Middle East in denying themselves the pleasure of his company, with Bahrain’s Crown Prince having advised Mosley to stay away from this weekend’s grand prix.

In three weeks Mosley is due to attend the Spanish Grand Prix, where the FIA is scheduled to launch an anti-racism campaign after the abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton during a pre-season test there, then go to Monaco in May. However, Sir Jackie Stewart, who as a driver, team owner and businessman has mixed with crowned heads all over the world, warned that Mosley would be persona non grata wherever he went.

“I think it’s incredible that Max believes he can remain as president of an international federation which has a global reach,” said Stewart. “With that global reach you’re running right round the world with different cultures and different religions and different moral standards, and a large part of the world does not understand how, after what has occurred, the president can remain in that position.

“As president of the FIA he has to represent the sport, sometimes to heads of state or monarchs. Because of what has occurred, he will not be able to do that, as Bahrain has already made clear.”

King Juan Carlos II of Spain, is a regular presence at the grand prix in Barcelona, and Prince Albert always attends the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. Mosley has relished the social standing that his position at the head of the FIA has given him. Many in the paddock believe that he has long been ambitious to gain an honour of his own. That prospect, considered a serious possibility because of the success of an FIA road car safety campaign, has been blown out of the water, but of more concern to many in F1 is the damage being done to the sport.

Bizarrely, it is possible that Mosley will not even face a no-confidence vote at the FIA’s extraordinary meeting in Paris to consider the scandal surrounding its president. Vijay Mallya, the owner of the Force India team and a voting member of the FIA in his capacity as chairman of the Indian Federation of Automobile Clubs, said Mosley was suggesting that he had already received considerable support from member clubs.

Mosley wrote to the clubs yesterday maintaining that he had done nothing wrong. “We are speculating there will be a vote and he will stay or go, but equally there might not be a vote,” said Mallya. “The letter seems to suggest Mr Mosley has spoken to more than 20 presidents and they are supporting him. If there is an overwhelming level of support for him in the general assembly, there is hardly going to be a vote on whether he stays or goes.”

The Force India principal said he would have to speak to his own members before deciding how he would vote - if given an opportunity. “India is a relatively conservative country, and the video was quite shocking,” he said. “Quite shocking. But what can you say to a person who says, ‘I did what I did, I defend what I did, it’s well within my rights, there’s nothing illegal about it’? If he likes to get his ass whipped, it’s his problem.”

Mosley, however, clearly intends to fight to the last, and the feeling in the paddock was that it might take further revelations to force his hand, at least before the FIA meeting. Many in the industry remain nervous, perceiving Mosley as a man who holds grudges and has a long memory.

“Imagine what it will be like if he does actually survive and comes out the other side. He'll think he can do absolutely anything,” said one individual, on strict condition that he would not be named. The often entertainingly gossipy and cynical paddock “newspaper”, the Red Bulletin, has not mentioned the story once.