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.

 

[Titch]

You're a fan then teabagyokel.

 

[Speshal]

Dare I guess who comes in the #2 spot?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Strange life isn't it? A few months ago I made a posting on an article in the Observer. This was to the effect that Justin King was being groomed to replace Ecclestone. It was pooh-poohed at the time, now it's a possibility.

 

[teabagyokel]

Speshal - Depends who you want to post pictures of what...?

 

[Speshal]

Please not THAT picture

 

[Mephistopheles]

I would like to put forward Flavio Briatore as successor to Bernie, do I have a second for this motion?

 

[Fenderman]

"There are also suggestions that Justly Kinglike, CEO of the Sainsburger's grocery chain, is in the running. However, he lacks the credentials such as “sneakiness, flexible back-hand and, more importantly, crafty guile” for the job. He is reputed to be honest which is a major handicap."

Rooting Today: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/rooting-today.3576/page-3#post-200933

 

[cider_and_toast]

Those "Grooming" handover notes in full

1) Only Herman can design tracks
2) Ferrari are always right
3) Ferrari can do no wrong
4) The sport is dead without Ferrari
5) Give Ferrari whatever they want
6) Always arrange deals for 100 years even when technically they're not yours to arrange
7) Always keep the current biggest teams on side then drop them like hot bricks when they are on the slide
8) Say one thing and then do another
9) Use Eddie Jordan as a spokesman, he'll do anything for cash.
10) Remember, it's not about sport, it's about how much money you can make for yourself
11) As the saying goes, any publicity is better than no publicity
12) Ideally you want 2 teams as this is easier to market so if you have Ferrari and one other, on twenty Herman designed tracks, in major world centres, paid for by governments and with a grandstand for 100 fans but a VIP area for 1000000 fans then you've finally achieved my dream.
13) I'll be watching you.

 

[cider_and_toast]

In the news this morning, Bernie's buisness dealings are under further scrutiny with regards to the value of the sport jumping from $800 million one minute and $2.5 billion the next. Seems like there are more lawyers going through the books.

You can't help but feel the more carpets that get lifted the more troubles will be found.

I would imagine there are a lot of organisations would like to have their pound of flesh in any carve up and maybe the house of Ecclestone is about to fall.

 

[Bill Boddy]

If there were to be an investigation into how Mr Mosley, who was a friend of Mr Ecclestone, sold the F1 franchise so cheaply it could be interesting. By now though it will have legally timed out.

 

[gethinceri]

I would expect there to be many individuals, companies and governments connected to Bernie's wad of fivers.
"Follow the money",

 

[jez101]

Bill Boddy - that one is complicated by the Eu ruling that forced the fia to divest its commercial interest while it held the rule making / governing body role. It forced a fire sale, so for them to get $300m for the rights could be argued to be a lot too. The issue is the 100 years rather than the amount of money.

Todays story about Constantine Medien is interesting. They have been arguing this for a long time now, before Gribkowsky.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If Bernie stacked all of his money in five pound notes to make one tall column how much taller than him would it be?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Ok, taking the width of a pile of 1000 5 pound notes to be 7 inches and given Bernie's current wealth according to wikipedia then the height of his stash if piled up in 5 pound notes would be around 117.5 miles high so I'd say the answer to your question is....

A shit load

 

[Mephistopheles]

So if he jumped off the top of his column of fivers he'd break his bloody neck then?

And if I stepped off the top of my column of fivers no harm done.....

 

[GeoffP]

If he could stand on a 117 mile high column of fivers I'd probably believe he could fly, was innocent and a whole load of the other contradictory garbage he's spouted over the years

 

[teabagyokel]

He'd probably break his neck jumping off a pile of 50s as well; I'd want to be there too see that if just in hope that some of them would fall into the crowd when it happened...

 

[cider_and_toast]

If he could stand on top of his 117 mile high pile of fivers, he'd almost certainly get Herman to design a track on it and get NASA to pay for it.

 

[Titch]

He has a new wife, Fabiana. They are cruising in his yacht (Gin palace) currently visiting Croatia.
He certainly wastes no time, out with the old, in with the new.

 

[Bill Boddy]

He may not have much time left for consorting with the opposite sex.