Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone attempted to qualify for a single World Championship event. He was in a Connaught-Alta, one of a fleet of three entered by himself. He finished qualifying 265.2 seconds off the pace, and his two team-mates failed to qualify as well.

He is, however, the most important single person in Grand Prix history. He took charge of Motor Racing Developments in 1972, from Ron Tauranac. He was the team principal for Nelson Piquet's two drivers' titles, but he'd lost interest by the time Brabham missed the deadline to enter the 1988 World Championship.

Into the governance of the sport he went, and he modernised it, and quickly controlled Formula One. He is now the leader of a billion-dollar industry. He is a divisive figure, but he's not done badly for someone who was four minutes off the pace on a Saturday in Monaco.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Bernie isn't holding F1 together he is manipulating it to his will.

he is like a dictator, he has repressed, held back and controlled everything for 40 years. Because 'the people' don't know any better they blindly support him out of fear that change will bring something worse.

The truth is, change will bring about a fairer better more democratic system for governing F1.

 

[Road of Bones]

There is an argument however, that democracy doesn't work - look at the deadlock whenever the teams try and agree on rules & regulations, or budget caps, for instance. Aggressive self-interest will always trump cooperation in the microcosm of F1, which is why having a benevolent(ish) dictatorship under Bernie has worked(ish) for so long. He's made a career out of playing everyone off against one another and obfuscating when they try to join forces, or just plain banging heads together whenever they argue amongst themselves.

The fact of the matter is, that since he made them quite rich, he's been playing the "you owe me" card ever since. In making himself appear indispensible, there is a natural nervousness about trying to think of a successor, which Bernie has also played to his advantage for years.

Once Max Mosley left the FIA, you kind of feel that Bernie's been hanging on more out of "better the devil you know" rather than being buttressed in position with a political ally at the FIA ever since.

If they try to turn F1 into a democracy, I fear that it will descend into endless deadlock between the teams and the FIA, and we will see even more stagnation than we do now.

 

[Greenlantern101]

If there is an issue, everyone votes on it. The majority get there way.

I don't see how that will cause deadlock.

 

[teabagyokel]

Bernie Ecclestone simply exploited the trend of professionalisation which took place in all sports in the 90s. He's leeched of this for years.

He has not held F1 together. Much of the ills of modern F1 have been caused by Ecclestone ripping it asunder. The product will be better if run by someone who gives the first shit about it, someone who is thus not Bernie Ecclestone.

 

[The Pits]

the one thing that I have learnt about top people in business, politics and sport, is that they know when the time is right. Tony Blair, Terry Leahy, Alex Ferguson etc.

Whether on purpose or not, I think that Bernie will know when the time is right to allow himself to be pushed out (and I feel it will ONLY happen on his agenda)

My view is that he had a positive influence in shaping F1 in his early years, however, now, the beast has become something that is neither fully sport/business/entertainment, whilst attempting to marry the three, and I cannot help but believe it will be ultimately unsuccessful on all fronts.

It would need someone of a similar mold to Ecclestone to do anything about it though, and I am not sure any of the short (ahem) list would be up to the job.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that my Boss Justin King would be a good bet.

 

[RasputinLives]

The teams don't want democracy. They couldn't even hold a union together.

I understand what you are hoping for with the 'majority vote decides' card but the big names won't play that game. The moment it doesn't go Ferrari's way they'll threatern to pull out so everyone will have to come back to the table. If its not them it'll be Merc. If its not them it'll be Red Bull. If you go with majority wins then you'll have at least one spin off series if not two within 5 years and if that starts to happen F1 will be dead.

What you need to keep it together is someone who knows how to manipulate the teams into agreeing with each other and thinking its their idea in the first place. Unfourtunatly you have to be a despicable man to do this. Hence why we need Bernie.

As for not missing Mosley. Am I wrong or has everyone spent the entire last season complaining about the FIA messing the tyres up and bending rules to fix teams. As much as I hate Max it wouldn't have happened under him. Oh and with all these pay drivers and struggling teams his budget cap rules were looking pretty sensible to me.

I'm sorry but the same thing will happen that it does everytime a dictatorship falls. The people wanting the power will spend so long arguing over who gets the nice chair and the company cars that by the time they get down to the real business then the empire will have fallen.

 

[Road of Bones]

Beautifully put RasputinLives - couldn't agree more!

The only time the teams have ever come close to mutual support recently was with FOTA and the breakaway threat that eventually toppled Mosley, but as soon as they started to turn their attention to FOM, Bernie soon used his old "divide and conquer" tactics again, and got Ferrari & Red Bull to break ranks. Once the house of cards lost two pillars, it soon collapsed.

If Bernie is forced to cede his authority, whether through incarceration (unlikely) or dismissal, without a succession plan there will be a power vacuum. When that happens, I suspect that F1 will dissolve into a hopeless mess just as Raspy describes.

I also think that the sport has been poorer without Max Mosley - at least he seemed like he cared what was going on, unlike Jean Todt, whose touch has been so light as to be undetectable. He hasn't even managed to raise the profile of Rallying during his tenure, has he?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

It's hard to see where a replacement for Bernie will come from. He's been a part of F1 as a team owner since the early 70's before forming FOCA with other team owners & constructors. The surviving members from that group are Frank Williams and Max Mosely, neither of them are likely candidates to replace Bernie for different reasons.

Since FOCA was disbanded, the promotion and management of F1 passed to the Formula 1 group, Firstly FIPA and Finally FOM. This is an organisation firmly under Bernies control and unless there are executives within the company poised to takeover his place as CEO the alternative would be to pass it over to an organisation similar to FOCA

Such an organisation has existed since 2008. FOTA would be the ideal choice, F1 would be run by the teams themselves. There is one down side though. The chairman is Martin Whitmarsh. What's his current employment status?

 

[Greenlantern101]

Maybe they should ask if Kim Jong-Un would be interested.

 

[gethinceri]

I have a fear that F1 survives because Bernie is a magician; I'm not sure that any of the money is real, there's a diagram somewhere that shows who owns what in F1 and in essence I don't think anyone owns any of it. All it would take is for the right domino to fall and the whole lot would come down like a Bristol girl's knickers on a Friday night (unless Mephistopheles is around).
Sadly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it imploded in the next 2 years.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Good article in The Telegraph about life after Bernie.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...odbye-gives-Formula-One-chance-to-reform.html

 

[Greenlantern101]

Looks like Bernie may be able to buy his way out of jail even if found guilty

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ecclestone-could-pay-to-avoid-german-jail/

 

[Titch]

A settlement after the trial has started sounds like a legal bribe, instead of the illegal one that he's being tried for.

Maybe he'll settle all his F1 assets with the courts, and F1 will be run by the German legal system.

 

[Plutus]

Looks like Bernie may be able to buy his way out of jail even if found guilty

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ecclestone-could-pay-to-avoid-german-jail/

A good idea and I guess based on past experiences, not to jail a self-proclaimed dictator.

 

[teabagyokel]

I'd just put him in a prison with a revolving door, he'd be screwed!

 

[Fenderman]

Interesting way of putting it ...

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes they call it a settlement in legal terms but when it is done outside the court it is called a bribe.....

Bribing Peter to forget about bribing Paul...

 

[The Pits]

Well, not sure if this is relevant, however, it has just been announced that Justin King has stepped down as ceo of Sainsburys.......

 

[Greenlantern101]

Just wiki'ed him. Self proclaimed petrol head and his son is a racing driver. So thats good....

Just not sure running a super market is the same as running F1.

 

[The Pits]

The key to both is stakeholder management....