Anyone who saw the BMW-Sauber driver survive a heart-stopping, 300-km/h crash at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix understands the safety stamp Mosley put on his Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) presidency.
"It shows that the push of FIA for the safety, you know, to the teams and that they crash-test everything, it has been a big improvement," Kubica said a week after the crash.
"And also big thanks to FIA because in the end they are pushing for the safety, and probably 10 years ago we would not speak here, and this time I feel like nothing happened."
Kubica's car slipped off the track as he attempted to get past another driver on the approach to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve's slow hairpin corner and slammed into a concrete barrier. His car disintegrated in a shower of carbon fibre and then catapulted down the track, leaving his feet hanging from the front of the shattered wreck when it came to a stop.
Despite the violent impact, Kubica limped out of hospital the next day with only a sprained ankle.
And that should be Mosley's legacy: The man who guided F1 through one of its darkest periods and worked tirelessly to keep tragedy from striking the sport again.
Elected FIA president a few months before the sport lost Brazilian Aryton Senna in a high-speed crash seven laps into the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Mosley's opening year as head of F1's governing body could only be described as an enormous challenge.
Arguably the most talented man to ever suit up in a racing car, the death of three-time world champion Senna threw the sport into shock. His fatal crash occurred one day after Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger lost his life in qualifying for the same race.
The two deaths in two days stunned the F1 world, which had lapsed into a bit of complacency after 12 years without a fatality at a race. While Elio de Angelis died during an F1 test in 1986, the last man to perish in a grand prix was Ricardo Paletti, who lost his life in a crash at the start of the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
The ensuing safety campaign following the ill-fated weekend in Imola that saw Mosley act quickly and decisively for the good of the sport simply cannot be ignored.
The next season, new rules were brought in to cut down-force in half, to slow the cars in corners, while other regulations cut engine power by about one-quarter.
Other improvements in the next few years saw cockpits become crash cells that protect the driver by reducing the force of the impact they feel in an accident, collars mandated around the cockpit opening helped protect drivers' heads and necks, and the Head and Neck support device, called HANS, also became compulsory.
Meanwhile, F1 circuits were refitted to have larger run-off areas and to eliminate exposed walls similar to those that played a central role in the deaths of both Senna and Ratzenberger.
In an interview last December, Mosley, 69, rightly singled out "the improvements in safety both on public roads and on the circuits" when asked about his achievements.
Unfortunately, events of the past two years may overshadow Mosley's positive accomplishments and focus his legacy on the unpleasantness that has marked his battle with the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).
While ruthlessness, cunning, and dogged determination served Mosley well as he ensured his safety reforms were adopted, his refusal to step aside for the good of the sport may find many remembering him as a ruthless dictator who tried everything to hold on to power.
With a united FOTA opposing his budget cap plan and refusing to sign up for the 2010 championship until the rules were finalized, Mosley's tactics had the sport racing toward a threatened - and potentially disastrous - breakaway manufacturers championship.
The fuse seemed to be extinguished last week when Mosley, FOTA and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and the sport's commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone struck an agreement that ended the stalemate.
But, only one day after agreeing not to seek re-election in October as part of the deal, Mosley threw everything in doubt by writing to FOTA to announce that he would reconsider his decision due mostly to di Montezemolo's declaration that F1 would no longer be a dictatorship.
Admittedly, the Ferrari boss probably should apologize for gloating and give his opponent a graceful way out, but di Montezemolo's characterization also underlines how little impetus there is among the teams to work with Mosley.
On the other hand, Mosley's renewed threat to remain at the helm leaves the impression that he can't relinquish control, even when all the signs say it's time to go.
Continuing his personal fight with FOTA certainly can't do the sport any good and, in the end, it will only divert attention from Mosley's remarkable legacy of making F1 one of the safest sports in the world.
globeauto@globeandmail.com
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