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]

Well I think he is a lovely young man...

 

[siffert_fan]

I wonder what would be the outcome if this were to happen:

Caterham survives.

The boycott occurs at the START of next season, when it is too late for Bernie and his henchmen to do anything about it. The boycott (essentially a complete withdrawl from F1 which I don't see any of them surviving anyway) includes Caterham, Sauber, Lotus and Force India. Now, with the defunct Marussia, that leaves the starting grid down by TEN cars! Seeing that, Haas announces that he won't be joining after all, so the shortage has become 12!

What would the bloodsuckers do then?

 

[cider_and_toast]

What would the bloodsuckers do then?

Before it ever got to that stage, the team owners threatening the boycott would forget their principled stand in return for the promise of a few more dollars and before you know it it's back to square one.

 

[Jen]

A naive question - would F1 be in such a strong position as it is now without Bernie?

From my point of view, that is a rhetorical question.

There would be no racing that the public could see without him. Yes, he is a money grabbing shit, a tyrant, a lousy husband (allegedly) and a very small, old man but, I suspect, that he injected enough interest into a minority sport to ensure its survival.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I totally disagree Jen, Ecclestone took the sport in the direction he wanted to go. In what way is it in a strong position? It still hasn't developed in the US, it's reputation is in bits, it has no effective promotion when even it's own ring master talks about how rubbish the sound of the new engine is when he should be promoted an exciting new frontier of technology. The only reason its financially viable is because governments have had to step in and pay for races.

How much stronger would F1 be if they an extra 3/4 of a billion dollars to spend on it?

 

[teabagyokel]

cider_and_toast - The promotion is, indeed, so poor that the German Grand Prix was sparsely attended despite having a German Championship contender going great guns. Huge swathes of money have been wasted building unwanted circuits in Korea, India, Turkey and Spain that have been abandoned after scarcely an attempt to race there. The Chinese Grand Prix has whole stands that are covered by advertising despite the government bussing them in. The series has lost huge numbers of viewers on TV due to the Sky deal, after 30 years of success on terrestrial TV which pre-dated Ecclestone's reign.

 

[Tuscan1969]

Clearly its not a black or white situation there are numerous shades of grey too.

I'd prefer not to look back but to look forward and given the atrocious handling of the introduction of the new engines, the cost cap promises to the new teams and the current in fighting about three cars and engine unfreezes etc etc it's clearly time for a more sensible, more strategic and certainly more democratic approach to running F1. But I will say its certainly not all wee Bernies fault. FIA has been astoundingly negligent of its supposed crown jewel event and too many small F1 teams have lost sight of the basic "cash in must be equal to or greater than cash out" principle.

Right now it has the feel of an ongoing playground spat and is a million miles from the image that I think Honda and Merc would like to have for their top line efforts.

 

[siffert_fan]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29969702


Notice the statement: The payments to the teams have been the same as always except we gave MASSIVE bonuses to 4 teams.

Quite the exception, there, Bernie

 

[cider_and_toast]

Ecclestone said he could not give Marussia and Caterham an advance on the payments they would have been due for this year to help them survive because "we are not allowed to support one team in any way over any other".

Come again? Pardon? Excuse me?? I did read that last part correctly didn't I ??

One word FERRARI !!!!

 

[siffert_fan]

I think it interesting that I can now look back to F1 under the management regime of Jean-Marie Balestre as "the good old days".

 

[Mephistopheles]

There would be no racing that the public could see without him.

I'm sorry Jen but that is totally wrong there would always have been someone in the wings waiting to run the show whether they would have been better or worse than Bernie is a matter of conjecture, my personal opinion is that whoever it was they couldn't have done any worse than he has..

 

[cider_and_toast]

Makes you wonder what on earth Jean Todt is up to ?? At least Balestre and Mosely did something even though that something was normally wrong. He's been in charge for a number of years now and as far as I can tell kept F1 at arms length apart from some technical regulation revisions. If the head of the FIA doesn't come out and say / do something then what chance do the rest of them have? I bet Jean wasn't that quiet in F1 management meetings when he was boss at Ferrari ??

 

[Dash Racing]

cider_and_toastThe series has lost huge numbers of viewers on TV due to the Sky deal, after 30 years of success on terrestrial TV which pre-dated Ecclestone's reign.

I think Bernie's focusing on expansion into new markets at the cost of the old market. The change to individual driver numbers and a double points race are certainly things that make F1 more approachable to the American crowd. Pair that with the switch from Fox to NBC for the broadcasting deal, and it's doing wonders. With Fox, I had to subscribe to super-premium cable or satellite because of how the TV providers here choose to operate. With NBC being part of basic service, and NBC Sports (which is usually where practice and quali are broadcast) only one tier up from basic cable, it's made F1 approachable because it's not buried on obscure channels that cost a fortune to subscribe to. There's been some great double-header features with Indy and F1 back to back on NBC. If you want F1 viewers, courting Indy fans is a good way to start!

 

[teabagyokel]

I think Bernie's focusing on expansion into new markets at the cost of the old market.

Granted, but it is a stupid strategy. What business plan says they need to work for a new market, but let's loose a majority of the market we've spent 60 years building? Especially when attracting the new market and keeping the old are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Jen]

A naive question - would F1 be in such a strong position as it is now without Bernie?

From my point of view, that is a rhetorical question.

There would be no racing that the public could see without him. Yes, he is a money grabbing shit, a tyrant, a lousy husband (allegedly) and a very small, old man but, I suspect, that he injected enough interest into a minority sport to ensure its survival.

I stand by what I said and I'm happy that it has created some worthwhile debate.

I don't like the man but there was little or no F1 on TV until the late 70s. He may not have done it well and possibly, always to his own advantage, but he realised that more people were interested than the odd news bulletin would suggest.

 

[Dash Racing]

Granted, but it is a stupid strategy. What business plan says they need to work for a new market, but let's loose a majority of the market we've spent 60 years building? Especially when attracting the new market and keeping the old are not mutually exclusive.

No argument there. I think it's a stupid strategy too.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I know the first coverage by the BBC was as a result of James Hunt going into the final race of the 76 season with a chance of winning the title. From that spawned the Grand Prix program that existed as a Sunday night highlights package after each race. That obviously grew into live race coverage by the mid-80's. Again, I don't think Ecclestone had a great deal to do with that. He didn't take over, and create a bidding war for TV rights until the mid 90's.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Not enough F1 cars he says, lets add some GP2 cars to the grid he says.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116734

 

[FB]

I don't think Ecclestone had a great deal to do with that. He didn't take over, and create a bidding war for TV rights until the mid 90's.

Bernie has been managing the commercial side of F1 since the late 70's early 80's as the other team bosses asked him to. He has made rich men of a huge number people and it's not his fault that teams can't organise a piss up in a brewery when it comes to budget caps and resource restrictions. F1 is Darwinian, survival of the fittest. F1 teams come and go, some grow and become race winners, others prove they have neither the financial acumen or technical nous to build a car which is much faster than a GP3 machine. If that is all they can achieve then they don't deserve to be in F1.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I was only talking about TV rights in this case FB. Yes Ecclestone was dealing with various commercial contracts on behalf of the teams but post Max Mosely's most generous gift of all of the commercial rights for a 100 years was when he really began to do the damage through un-restricted commercialism.

Survival of the fittest, is all well and good until it's your team. How are Pompey doing these days??