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.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It worked for the British GP didn't it?

Which is precisely the point I was trying to make earlier with the maneuvering of the Donnington Fiasco, pure Bernie manipulation at its worst...

 

[FB]

Well there's two who think F1 will be worse off without Bernie as the teams, who he has made very rich, will tear the sport apart unless another dictator takes over the running of the sport.

p.s. he's not my Dad, although I'm prepared to have a paternity test if there's a chance I can cop for some his riches when he croaks.

 

[Plutus]

Is he your dad?

No. Are you his son he never took any notice of, or where is all your frustration coming from?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Mate I was born angst....

The first words I ever said were "I don't like this at all, put me back in."

 

[Bill Boddy]

When Mr Ecclestone first started negotiating with the circuits he agreed with the teams that he would keep quite a low percentage (was it four) for his trouble. Since then it has risen to the state that it was over 50% ; due to complaints from the teams and the threat of them setting up their own series that was lowered and is now around 40% (of the net, not gross, take).

This is money which is departing from what the teams in essence bring in. Had the teams set up their own series the CVC take would have been zero. However, it would have been very difficult to set up their own series, especially as they find it difficult to co-operate. So yes, Ecclestone has brought money in but he has also taken much more out that has been given to the teams.

 

[Titch]

You mean he's a greedy B.

 

[Jen]

He has his heritage to preserve, after all. I'm not referring to F1 just his chavvy family! Allegedly.

 

[FB]

And as well as the money Bernie divvies out to the teams he provides them with FOM TV, transport around the World to the circuits and (I would presume) testing. He has bailed out various teams over the years, including Jordan and Williams. He negotiates all the contracts - tyres, TV, circuits, corporate sponsors, timing etc. etc. so that all the teams have to do is build their cars, squabble over trivial minutia in the technical regs, put the odd bloke up for interview every now and again and then sit at home on their bags of money courtesy of FOM.

Bernie is not without fault but, as FOTA has proven, F1 won't work with the teams in charge as they don't care about the sport they just care about themselves.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Erm, haven't there recently been complaints about the Ecclestone delivery system? Things like the teams having to pay excessive amounts of money to use services which they are obliged to use?

 

[chreden]

He's changed his mind about engines. Which means he hasn't, or maybe that he has, or he was talking to a different person so switched the the appropriate opinion to fit with his schemes.

"It is timely developments like these that keep Formula 1 at the forefront of sustainable and relevant technology," explained Ecclestone.

"One thing I am sure of is that this coming season will not only offer a heightened level of unpredictability but renewed excitement and fierce competition."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112399

 

[Bill Boddy]

One thing has always been certain about him ; he will adapt his opinions to suit the audience.

 

[siffert_fan]

Or else he is having the onset of senility

 

[Mephistopheles]

Another load of bollocks from the Bernie brigade....

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112399

 

[Plutus]

Could have just been 50 Mio. old F1 fans, who died due to age.

Maybe they were thinking I don't want to end up like Mr. E.

 

[Bill Boddy]

In 2009, according to the Guardian, the global audience was 600 million, now it is down to 450 million. How low can you go?

 

[Slyboogy]

In 2009 the interest was bound to be quite high due to it coming after the exciting seasons of recent times, 2007 and 2008.

After 2011 it's bound to go down after one driver and team dominate.

There's also the Sky aspect, which I presume was your point. But is Bernie to be blamed for that? From what I've heard, it was BBC that approached Sky and couldn't honour their own contract.

I don't like what the guy is doing to the sport, he's taking too much money out of it and putting in the wrong places, but sometimes, he does get criticism which he's not at fault for.

All I can say is, his time should come to an end...the sport needs a fresh face, with fresh ideas.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Couple of interesting Joe Saward articles on these very subjects.
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/thoughts-of-tv-numbers/
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/a-new-twist-for-the-formula-one-group/

 

[Plutus]

10% drop in Germany doesn't surprise me.
Compared to RTL ITV was high quality. All they do on RTL is rant about other drivers especially Massa and Maldonado. During the race you just lose count of how many times they mentioned Vettel and then this Heiko Wasser starts making projections on how the championship will end after the 1st race in the season, well that is what he did the last two years anyway.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I watch many of the races via RTL with the sound turned down and Five Live on. The first year it more than paid for itself against the Sky charge, year two cost me zero.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

I've just read that Bernie will personally give anyone a million with information about a team overspending. The article also says that there will be £120 million budget and any team breaching that will be docked 3 points.

The article is in this mornings metro so can't post a link but will try find an online source later.

I'm pretty sure that red bull or other team with a large budget would quite happily breach the spending cap for only a 3 point loss.