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.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Having got back from work and read the Autosport article in more detail, it clearly reinforces the points I made above.

The standard quote from Ecclestone:

"I'm sure they get fed up of people complaining, but I can assure you nobody has any complaints here.

"If they do then they shouldn't have signed the contracts [with FOM], but they did and they knew what they were doing.

What else are they going to do? He may as well say "If anyone doesn't like the quality of air then stop breathing"

It's either sign and take part or don't sign and don't take part.

Then you have this comment from Sauber:

A complaint to the EU does not have to come from a team, as any individual could do so with the proviso being there is enough evidence to launch an investigation.

Assessing the impact on F1 of such an investigation, Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn told AUTOSPORT: "It would tie you up a lot, and I don't think anybody wants that.

Exactly as I said, those at the bottom won't do anything about it because they are too scared they wouldn't make it through the inquiry. If they kicked out the pillars the whole thing would come down on top of them. Remembering of course the so called smaller teams had an early funding pay out to cover the bills so as I said, Ecclestone gives them a little something to keep them quiet knowing full well they need him for more.

And so we go on and nothing ever changes.

 

[Titch]

Take heart. Change happens. Always.

 

[RasputinLives]

Take heart. Change happens. Always.

No change always appears to happen and everyone believes it for a while until a few years down the line everyone realises that everything is exactly the same as it was before the change but it now goes by a different name.

So speaks a History graduate.

 

[Titch]

By a different name with modern twist on it. I'm not still cooking in a pot hung over a fire, I have a modern electric cooker. But you are right, I am still cooking.

 

[RasputinLives]

But why have you got a modern electric cooker? Has it been invented to make your life easier? No its been invented and made avaliable to you because someone can make a profit it out of both it and the electricity needed to make it work. They've then done the best thet can to convince you this is change and modern progress and you'd be a fool to carry on using your old cooking pot! Hey you may have to work longer hours and part with more of what you've earned to use it but hey its modern change and progress. Funny thing is though that a stew cooked on a hob over a fire or one cooked on an electric cooker taste exactly the same.

The public wants what the public gets. If there is change in F1 it'll only come because someone realises they can make more money doing it a different way. Last time the sport was viewed as being out of date and being headed up by corrupt officials that didn't care about the sport or fans a certain gentlemen named Bernard stepped in and made changes. He was heralded as the saviour of the sport and wasn't the modernisation, the better coverage for fans and the more money for teams a wonderful thing. Cue 25 years later and people see he was lining his own pockets.

In the words of Shirley Bassey, when she was with the Proprellerheads no less,, "its all just a little bit of History repeating".

 

[Titch]

Are you still living in a cave then?

 

[RasputinLives]

Heh. Obviously I don't. You don't get wi-fi in a cave so couldn't rant on here. I'm just saying change is usually never made for the good of everyone. Change is a consequence of someone trying to gain something, whether it be the person inventing it or the person promoting it. We don't have all this technology avaliable to us now because someone thought it would improve civilization but because someone thought they could gain power/money from it.

So is the same with F1. Bernie will only go if the sport stops earning money for those at the top. Whilst CVC, its shareholders, Ferrari, Red Bull and Merc are making money from what is going on it will carry on exactly the same as it is. When the change does come it will be because the powers that be are afraid they will lose money. Someone will come along and change things round and he or she will be heralded a hero. They might even genuinely be doing it for the sport to start with. But at the end of the day they will be lining the same peoples pockets.

Then 20 years later people will be up in arms about it. That person will be an evil bugger who doesn't care about the sport and doesn't listen to the fans. People will say change must come......and the whole thing starts again.

 

[Mephistopheles]

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...f1s-best-ever-champion-says-bernie-ecclestone

One of Bernie's more sane quotes

Did they have twitter in Fangio's day..

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maybe this should go in the non-news section.

BBC Sport - Sepp Blatter: Fifa boss should remain in post - Bernie Ecclestone

What else would you expect from a man who has paid £60,000,000 to avoid going to prison.

 

[Greenlantern101]

A dictators only friends are other dictators.

 

[siffert_fan]

Ecclestone: F1 needs overhaul to cease being "engineers' championship"

This may well be the first time I have ever agreed with Bernie. That alone is making me re-think my opinion!

 

[Bill Boddy]

He does not say that it was Mosley and Ecclestone who were so keen on getting manufacturers on board.

I'm surprised that no-one said all this at the time of Colin Chapman.

 

[Dash Racing]

Perhaps because in Chapman's time, the formula was open enough that any team could experiment with something new to overcome the performance of another car? They can't now, so the championship is pretty much down to the lead designers and engine manufacturers, provided no-one botches the strategy, or bins the car.

 

[siffert_fan]

In Chapman's time, a good enough driver could make up for deficiencies in the car, and even win championships in cars that weren't the class of the field. That is no longer the case, and, IMO, the sport is much the worse for it.

 

[siffert_fan]

The fact that a 17 year old could appear so impressive in an F1 car proves that they are far too easy to drive today. I suspect that, if you put him in one of the old 1200hp BMW-turbo-engined monsters, that he would have hit the barriers within the first two laps he ran.

To me, that is yet more proof that the WDC title today holds far less meaning than in days of yore.

 

[Bill Boddy]

One of the main problems with F1 today is that computers can do in seconds what a good designer neede months to do. If the rules are tight efficient programs will all come up with very similar results.

 

[David Buckley]

I noticed in football news that Leeds Uniteds owner wants to sell the club to the fans. Perhaps we could get the poison dwarf and CVC to sell F1 to the fans.... just wishing out loud Crowd funding anyone?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Well if it's crowd funding then most of the newer races will be leaving.

 

[teabagyokel]

How about crowd-funding a race in France or Germany?

 

[David Buckley]

Perhaps we should start a movement to use crowd funding to keep all the traditional circuits and lobby the government to have Bernie deported to Russia to be with his mate Vlad the impaler.