I had a bit of a day off yesterday after all the rushing around in the last month and although nothing actually happened, there were a few whispers that might become quite significant as they develop. The most important one is a news report from Germany that the Bavarian prosecution service will soon be indicting Bernie Ecclestone in the case of Gerhard Gribkosky. The stories were published in Süddeutsche Zeitung, which has proven to be a fairly accurate chronicler of the situation from the start, with obvious connections in the Bavarian prosecution service. The latest report suggests that the prosecutors have been looking for evidence that shows that Ecclestone knew that Gribkowsky was a public official, as Bernie’s legal counsel had argued that this was not the case. However, Mr E made some disparaging remarks about Gribkowsky being a civil servant and that may be the key to cracking the case, if the prosecutors consider this to be evidence that Ecclestone knew that he was dealing with a public official.
Gribkowsky has already confessed to accepting a bribe and has reportedly told the authorities that Ecclestone knew what was going on. Ecclestone obviously wants to avoid an indictment of any kind, as that could open the way for actions that would disrupt his control of the F1 business, but in recent months many deals have been on hold pending the outcome of the Bavarian investigation.
What will become important if charges are made is the reaction of the owners of the Formula One group to the news. One must assume that CVC has thought through its situation and has already decided on what strategy it will adopt in the event of an indictment. If the private equity business does not have the clout to oust its CEO, which could be possible with golden shares and such things, Ecclestone could stay on in the role, but many fear that this would be a real problem for the sport. The FIA might be in a position to cancel its promoters contract, although few think that the federation has the gumption to do that. We will see.
At the same time the French government has effectively dumped all ideas of a Grand Prix, saying that no government subsidies will be available. This is not a surprise and so if there is to be a French GP it will have to be done with private and local government money. The two proposed races both required a state guaranteed for their dossiers and without that there is no chance of a race.
Paul Ricard and Magny-Cours must now decide whether they want to go ahead with the guarantees. The decisions will be needed before the World Council meeting tomorrow.
Elsewhere Vijay Mallya is in the news in India with the suggestion that he is selling a stake in his spirits business to Diageo. The bad news for Mallya is that Diageo is making it quite clear that it will not pay more than the company is worth and wants either control of the business or a clear route to control. Mallya wants to hold on to that, but he desperately needs money to save Kingfisher Airlines, which is massively in debt and struggling to remain a viable business. It remains to be seen whether all these shenanigans allows Mallya to retain control of the Force India F1 team, or whether he will need to sell that as well.
joeblogsf1 
Joe,
Would there be a queue of buyers for Force India? Although they seem to be a competent organisation, for anything other than Indian buyers, the name would be an issue. Force India have probably used up their quota of permitted name changes for a number of years: Jordan>Spyker>Midland>Force India (but not necessarily in that order). If they go ahead with a non-approved name change, don’t they lose a large proportion of their FOM funds?
Wilson
Would that depend on whether there was unanimous gareement by the other teams to a name change?
What about the Brabham family? The brand should be famous and ancient enough (unlike Mercedes as some people say ;-)) to be accepted by the entire F1.
Fingers crossed there might be enough in one of those ‘whispers’ for our friend from MI6 to get his teeth into.
While Im sure he deserved a summer holiday it really is time to get back to work!
Ditto that ! Mole, come back, holidays are over 🙂
I add my vote for the Mole, he’s too young to retire.
Back here in India Vijay Mallya is in deep trouble his airlines is operating on all time low.It is on the verge of extinction as according to the DGCA(Directorate General Of Civil Aviation in INDIA) rules an airline should have some minimum number of planes flying regularly but Kingfisher Airlines has hardly got 1 or 2 planes more than the deadline.None of the banks i the country is ready to give him a loan as his company stands on 8000cr debt.His house is being demolished to build an apartment complex who’s sales would clear some of his debt and all remaining houses have been given as collateral to banks which lended him money earlier.But the recent rush of reforms by the Indian Govt. in the field of aviation by allowing 51% FDI might came as a ray of hope. But I don’t expect anything substantial happening in the coming months. His empire is definitely headed for a debacle.And future of Force India completely relies on his company and another blow was not too late when the Sahara Grp. faced heat by the Supreme Court to give a $3.1 billion fine to its investors. Last year I read a cover story IN THE FORBES MAGAZINE that Mallya had a pretty good oppurtunity that had come his way which would have proved a life saver for him.Last year world’s leading beverage maker Seagram offered to buy a stake in United Spirits which Mallya agreed to but the Seagram wanted control over the South Indian markets and this condition became a major roadblock in the deal as the south Indian markets are biggest revenue generators for Mallya’s company and he couldn’t bear the fear of loosing control over it. His reluctance has proved a major setback for his company’s growth not only in the case of Seagram but even earlier.
A very predictable outcome for students of The Word;
Holy Bible KJV, Prov. 13:5-7, 28:6;
A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.
Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
This blog is about motor racing, thanks. Sermons can be delivered elsewhere…
Amen to that! 🙂
Agreed
Yes Sir! But you overlooked the point that the verses refer directly to most of the people you know in F1, and therefore it is valid to point out that we are not surprised when they reap sin’s wages.
Righteousness and participating in F1 are incompatible.
And so I guess is watching it.
That depends on the “watcher’s” motive.
I haven’t watched F1 for years BTW.
Old DC won the last one I saw 🙂
In which case, WTF are you doing here? Don’t you have anything better to do?
This begs a question if you don’t watch F1: Did you get a bit lost and confused and wander onto Joe’s “blog about the world of F1” by accident? 😉
As I understand it, Joe is very knowledgeable about religion and the clergy, so I venture to suggest that he doesn’t need to be preached at.
My apologies to grammar pedants for the hanging preposition, by the way. 🙂
One guesses that Joe would find certain other bits of holy writ very apposite to the struggles of running a blog comments section — “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
As an aside, I have had a couple of F1 engineering colleagues over the years who have had deeply-held christian beliefs, I would think it highly rude to tell them what to think or believe.
As Joe says, this is an F1 blog.
You do realise what you wrote in your last sentence.
Let me paraphrase – read and want to believe and then you will believe
No religion needed there, just believe something and you will believe!
Anyway if you look at history, especially in Europe since the middle ages you will find that they are extremely closely tied. And you can’t divorce the present from the past.
Chrisitanity is a religion, it has everything to do with religion. And clergy are involved. If you don’t involve clergy then it isn’t Chrisitanity. Sacraments are blessed by ________ (I’d go with clergy). Christianity is a relgiion (as I said before), ergo Christinaity is tied to religion and clergy.
Ironically you did make possibly a great point about F1 in all of that …
“TV is dispensable”.
FOM should probably learn that and focus a bit more on the internet.
Anyway.
Just occurred to me, the internet game is definitely a hard one in which to impress. So many things possible. so many unfulfilled marketing promises. It’s become plumbing. You only notice it if it breaks down or does not gush fresh water. What I mean is I don’t think of it as a source of growth of expectation any more. I think the younger crowd are if anything more jaundiced.
“Righteousness and participating in F1 are incompatible.”?
That’s a little too much. There is good and bad everywhere, always. If one looks for it, it will be found.
Your definition of Good and bad contradicts God’s, so one of you is wrong, and it isn’t God 🙂
The concept of everybody having a little bit of “good” in them is demonic nonsense found in many man-made religions.
It is Satan’s old-lie, particularly found in George Fox’s Quakerism (False Christianity) and many occult religion of Asia.
Here’s what God says… Holy Bible, Romans. 3:10-18 KJV;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
And… Romans 3:23 KJV;
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
He is the Truth, and he always has the Final Word: Listen to Him.
Call me an autocrat, but this is not a blog about religion. One more post along these lines and you’re out. I’ve been polite but you think you have some god given right to spout on. I’m sure if you wish to do that there is a better place to do it…
The good thing about thing being your website is that you are an autocrat – every pixel is yours and no one has a right for their words to be published on it, whether they’re relevant or not.
FWIW, I admire your patience.
I apologize for stoking that fire. I didn’t mean to. It really wasn’t important. I should have ignored the urge to type what I felt. I’ll think twice before I stir up bad stuff (or try to be a smartass).
Joe, you receive a lot of unnecessary grief in these posts. Some of the pettiness lately has left me shaking my head. You have my respect and admiration for how well you deal with it.
Well said Joe. Just gained even more respect for you. It’s your show, so get the hook and drag ’em off stage right.
“god given right” Pun intended? All fun and games…
Oh, you lot! 🙂
There’s so many ways to express the good side of religion, without citing the verses or commandments. Just look at the good side of that, and start with oneself.
I’ve practically assumed my father’s idea of a “religious atheist” because even when he was most against men of the cloth, or preachers or nuns or whoever, he only ever cared for the person he was speaking to at the time. I summarise it thus: have faith, but preach little or not at all. Be what you want, whether a moral man or racing driver, neither of those is really incompatible. I’ve said it before, I am religious, but only in hoping the next creature I meet shall be well. For all that, if you want to apply morals to people in business, please be my guest. Talk about stony ground . . but I shall flip that back to the fact few people care to learn what business is, they think it remote, therefore isolated from their personal ethics, bluntly people think different rules apply. That is not so, but it’s a failing grasp to reach across the boundaries, and maybe better not to apply one set of rules of the other. Yours ever ~ j
bravo
Is this your first time here? This is a Formula 1 blog, arguments are in 12A next door. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F7dL41VaRk
Still no news on Mercedes / Concorde and Lewis / McLaren / Mecredes?
EJit, promised we would know yesterday.
The other trouble for Bernie and CVC is the absoloute bath they have taken in their Channel 9 investment in Australia. Looks like the banks are about to foreclose.
Many years ago Kerry Packer sold C9 to Alan Bond and was able to but it back a couple of years later for about 25% of the sale price. Kerry famously commented that you only get one Alan Bond in your life.
Kerry’s son James sold C9 to CVC for a nice fat sum.
Will James be saying you only get one CVC in your life?
But then FTA TV is not the cash cow it used to be. Maybe no buyers at all?
CVC’s investments are in different funds. Therefore the investments are usually unrelated and have debt which is non-recourse to other investments. This is to protect the good investments in the event that other go bad. Which is regularly what happens. The bigger issue is whether CVC’s reputation has been damaged by a series of recent failures. The Asia-Pac head responsible has been pushed out. Perhaps that will appease the investors.
As for James Packer, he is happy to push on with his gambling ventures and take money from stupid people happy enough to push it down the coin slot.
Agreed Adrian. Now wouldn’t he be a useful sponsor if Macau wanted to upgrade to F1.
On second thoughts maybe that would spoil what is now a magnificent week of motorsport.
I’m guessing you have been keeping up with the channel 9 debt issue and CVC asia. From what I’ve heard they are pretty much going to loose the entire thing to the holders of the debt. Does something like this effect the credibility and reputation of CVC or only the credibility and reputation of CVC asia, which from what I can gather is sort of seperate from CVC.
I have also heard a few rumours from some guys who are semi-involved in the management side of a couple of motorsport entities in australia, and they have said that it seems that the West Australian government is showing some interest in nicking the Aussie GP of Melbourne when the contract is up for renewal, and that they will most likely have it around a street circuit at the Burswood Entertainment Complex and Casino, which is coincidentally, owned by Crown which is owned by James Packer, the person who sold Nine to CVC asia. Although there may not be much validity to this story, I have heard it from a quite number of people I would consider trustworthy. Have you heard anything about this.
Keep up the good work
In PE, you’re only as good as your last fund. There is a lot of consolidation going on in the industry whereby the weaker players are not able to raise new funds and therefore are winding down. CVC has been round for a long time. They have had some wins and more recently some losses. I’m sure their next powerpoint slides will conveniently place more weight on earlier performance than more recent. PE players are pretty good at that.
For me the Perth GP makes a lot of sense when it comes to being in a better timezone for Asia. However, it would be a lot harder to get the same volume of bums on seats at the GP. Flights to Perth from the east coast are ~GBP5-600. Whereas Syd-Melb/Syd-Bris flights are ~GBP1-200. There are also far fewer hotels in Perth than in Melbourne. Therefore for the average spectator, it would be a lot more expensive to attend.
Joe, any “deeper” thoughts flying around about Robert Kubica’s alleged Pirelli testing engagement next year?
alleged is a big word.
Now Ecclestone tries to use diversionary tactic in recycling his Olympia nonsense to draw attention away from Gribkowsky case. Same thing was about London GP last time. Hard to explain though why the extention to 20 races p. a. should be bad now in a flick of the frist.
Additionally, from german source it was understood there is no appointment for a date for prosecution so far because the defense “did not comment the count of indictment so far” (!!). It´s off their hands.”
THAT explains why Bernie was in the press saying that the New Jersey GP (GP of Americas) will not happen. Smoke and mirrors…
i was thinking about bernie’s successor recently, and wondering why charlie whiting never seems to be suggested? he knows f1, bernie and his machinations as well as anyone, so would be well-primed to take over, no?
If I were CVC, I’d be courting T. Fernandes pretty vigorously for that role…
I think his chief legal counsel is sort of earmarked for the role, don’t remember her name offhand.
If I were CVC I’d be sleeping with one eye open in anticipation of T. Fernandes and a few other sharp minded people snapping up “F1” or whatever CVC actually owns from under their nose while they try to stop it’s value plummeting during Bambinogate.
Interesting thing I see about TF, is that for all his financial success – which is the quick measure we all start with in comparisons of businessmen – he seems to me to be taking a new libation of what counts as successful. You may think it parochial, he gets compared with Mal-liar here, please accept that not knowing either, I am partisan against who to my view acts in poor faith, but I sense TF is a curious guy, who accepts he is maturing, and hence has kept his head down. He’s gone into a new phase, and looks like he is evaluating what’s around him, rather than proclaiming his ego. I’ve had my own big head in business, though not as it is counted so successfully, and Tony rather struck me in his modesty, just the same time as I needed a rethink for myself. I cannot say I have not been influenced by this. That said, I think some kinds of company need forceful and strident bosses, and many many hugely successful companies have been founded or managed by maniacal types. Enough that I wonder TF’s demeanour is not the absolute nest for a competition team. For his history, I think he got blind sided by the Lotus affair, had the maturity to accept his mistake – the mistake being to trust certain parties – cut his losses, and is doing the quiet thing, to make sure Caterham is not going to the knackers financially. But I do think he lacks something many companies and many racers were blessed and cursed with: a bee in his bonnet. My guess is simply he is not playing to the crowd, and not working towards the same short horizons as other do. Sometimes I think he will be the new Sauber. If that means having a decent minded man in the middle of the pack, against all the utter rubbish so many teams speak, goaded I think by jealousy of results, well that’s a good thing. I never thought the new teams were but window dressing, so put it all in context they were set up to fail.
I had heard way back when it happened, that the Sahara name change, wasn’t brought about by a cash input into the Mallaya coffers, rather an acquisition thorough default by Mallaya on a $120 mil loan by Sahara to his business empire?
Any confrimation on that I wonder?
Didn’t miss much on your day off – good choice – the world was hanging around to see if soothsayer EJ was correct, and he wasn’t.
So boring was it I resorted to reading and trying to translate another German publication. It said that Lawyers for Mr. E had offered …CASH… to the Munich Prosecutors to settle the …BRIBERY… case with no custodial sentence.
Beyond irony?
Further, the Kirch widow is apparently issuing proceedings to begin recovering $4-500million from Mr. E for the value of their F1 rights held as a charge by the Gibkowsky bank and sold at a big discount to Mr. E’s client CVC. wp.me/p2HWOP-4x
apparently that’s not uncommon in germany! i was reading a story related to doping in cycling and a couple of lance armstrong’s contemporaries have a “clean” record since they paid the german investigators to stop investigating. all on the up and up apparently!
I am sure Joe was waiting for confirmation of the facts, but reported on the BBC F1 website is this http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19751443
I always thought Bernie was up to something with the amount of camouflage smoke he has been making recently and here it is, a major change in the organisation, rules and money already pre-agreed with Todt the invisible. I think it is the most serious development in many years and could well have a massive effect in several directions.
It would be an unholy mess were Bernie indicted yet refuse to stand down. F1 isn’t boxing. F1 is a public relations business. Having it run by a man under criminal indictment would amount to self destruction.
There’s little doubt that CVC’s heads would want Bernie sacked upon any indictment, though Joe makes a good point regarding Bernie’s connections within CVC. That being, we simply don’t know how deep those connections go. Bernie portrays himself as a simple employee who could be let go at any moment, believe that at your peril. I’ve often wondered if Bernie’s family trusts are in fact, large shareholders OF CVC. I’m certainly not the first to make that guess, but it could make his sacking rather difficult – without his assent, perhaps impossible.
As for the FIA, Bernie’s indictment would be a gift-wrapped ticket to reform so many of the sports massive problems. Joe is right though, Todt probably doesn’t have the stones to actually exercise the FIA’s contractual right to sever the commercial rights agreement. Todt should ask himself – What would Bernie do were their legal positions reversed?
How old is Max Mosley these days? I’m reading Bernard’s biography at the moment and it seems that Max was able to hold his own back in the day and worked well with/on behalf of Bernard. After a suitable time now on the sidelines, perhaps he could miraculously return to the sport?
He is 72.
Hah! A mere boy!
Well that was a thing my dad used to say when people mistook him for their junior.
I don’t know if my dad was exceptional, but I do know he was very on the ball still in his 70s (literally, because he played competition level squash), though a decade later you could see the fade and frustration.
I read this earlier, how the best long distance runner wins despite age by being right “lazy” in the off season. Sorry this is a awful long link, but it should get you right there:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444032404578006274010745406.html?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obinsite
Likely other things preclude a return for Max. Just not anything specific to his age.
I’ll take that back, the thing is not his age, but the time he’d expend working up to it again. That’d be long enough he would run out of runway. Though I’m sure we’d all be interested in his frank views right now.
Do you have any idea why Mr. Mallya wants to own an airline that bleeds money as opposed to a drinks company that makes money? I don’t get it. Why not declare the airline bankrupt and move on. Airlines all over the world are having trouble, people seem to keep on drinking. At what point do you jump?
Two things have affected far too many deals done by unlikely “industrialists”, first, negative interest rates, i.e. free money; secondly with that lack of discipline at the management level, if you have access to cash you really just want to spend it to acquire assets over talent. Stocks just rise and rise, pumped by “QEternity” so any nincom can play the game, just don’t expect to butt in late. I could easily say he has a silly ego, but it’s been stoked by other factors as well. As for jumping, I’d not dive in, in the first place. Hardly any money has ever been made by airlines.
BBC carrying this headline this morning:
“FORMULA 1
Lewis Hamilton is to leave McLaren and drive for Mercedes next season”
No story attached to it yet (07.39)