I went to see Bernie Ecclestone in Brazil, because I overheard a Portuguese announcement in the Media Centre (if that appalling facility can truly be given such a grandiose title) telling the local press that they were invited to an event that was not being publicised for the rest of us. I figured it might be some announced about the new pit building that is supposed to be in the pipeline for Interlagos, and so I snuck down to the paddock, found a crowd of folk waiting for Mr E, and then spotted the man himself and quickly asked what was going on.
“I’m retiring,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
I laughed and went back to work. It was clearly some kind of presentation of a painting to the race organiser – which is why the international press had not been invited.
You can say that many a true word is spoken in jest – and I did for a moment ponder whether perhaps the Brazilian GP might be Bernie’s last as CEO of the Formula One group – but anyone who knows Bernie understands that the only kind of retirement he is ever going to take will be one that is forced upon him.
Maybe that will happen.
It is very interesting at the moment to follow the Ecclestone story in different outlets around the world. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which has been pretty much on the nail from the start with regard to the Gribkowsky Case and subsequent investigation into Mr E, clearly enjoys a very close relationship with the local prosecution service and is saying that an indictment is expected in the coming weeks. The newspaper, which is less good on the subject of F1 itself, says that the plan is for the board of the Formula One group to appoint a temporary CEO from amongst its own membership and that no replacement would be appointed until after the court case in Germany is completed.
Back in the UK, the Independent has reported that some of the race promoters will stop being involved in the sport if Ecclestone goes. I did not need to look up the name of the author on that story. Only one I know would have written such tosh. The problem with this sort of things is that the Internet picks up every story and spins it around and so this myth that some races will stop being involved without Ecclestone has been spread around by the monkeys with typewriters, who do not understand, nor care, what they are copying.
No-one, least of all the author, has asked the obvious question: Why on earth would any promoter give up a race if Bernie was not there? They are not there to serve Mr E. They are there to serve their bosses: be that a city or a region. The locals are using F1 to their own advantage, and Bernie is exploiting them accordingly, as befits his abilities as a great businessman. If he goes, the Formula One group would likely end up with less demanding negotiators, in which case the local promoters have much more to gain (or perhaps less to lose) from dealing with the sport’s next generation, whoever that might be.
The idea that promoters will be like the widows of Hindus who would throw themselves on the funeral pyre is a truly daft idea. There is no doubt that some of the promoters are Ecclestone’s mates – particularly Melbourne’s Ron Walker – and have helped him a great deal over the years, but this does not mean that the races they represent will simply fold up and go away. Even if they do, there will not be a shortage of new candidates.
A cynic would suggest that this is simply scaremongering, but what is really fascinating is that someone somewhere felt it was necessary to try to get this message across to CVC Capital Partners. The fact that there was a newspaper dumb enough to publish such a piece without checking is sadly to be expected in this day and age.
You clearly don’t rate that chap, whoever he/she is. I won’t bother finding out either.
You would think any charges brought against the Octogenarian superman would be based on legality not economics. I guess this was a shot across the bow from Bernie to the business consortium to keep them in line. Bernie the wizard seems to have found the real use and value of the Internet,
People salivating to see Bernie ousted should remember how quickly BMW and Toyota packed up and left everyone high and dry not exactly ‘stand up’ behavior, purely business. It takes a special kind of individual to referee this circus I hope Bernie gets to write his own final act as a corporate F1 with corporate members squaring off against each other is going to be gridlock and damaging to the sport .
“I’m retiring,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
I laughed and went back to work
Back in the UK, the Independent has reported that some of the race promoters will stop being involved in the sport if Ecclestone goes. I did not need to look up the name of the author on that story. Only one I know would have written such tosh.
I wonder if Bernie knows that you do not dance to his beat in the same way that some do….
G
Of course he does
Good…..
Carry On!
I think most sensible people learned long ago to ignore any article including the words “…according to Christian Sylt..”. The only person worth reading on the web site he scrawls for is Mike Lawrence.
Is his real name Mike Lawrence…?
No
And yet your business partner is happy enough to provide race reports and analysis to that same dumb paper. I guess their money still passes muster
)
I believe you will find that my business partner has been employed by the newspaper for many many years. It is not a dumb newspaper, but obviously some of the editorial staff are not very thorough.
Why did the editorial staff not check the credibility of this with your business partner? Is he/she senior? Are you sure they did not ask him/her? Or is this what you mean by the newspaper not being thorough?
Because newspapers these days don’t work like that.
Newspapers have editors and senior staff who vet all the contents. People who are senior enough can get the proposed contents printed or blocked as we have all found out thanks to Mr Murdoch over the past two years. The important thing is seniority
And being aware of what is happening.
You are right. If the person is a senior specialist in a field or a senior editor then the staff will come to them to let them know about something happening which falls within their remit. If they do not have this level of seniority then they will not.
The Guardian reporting is, in the main awfully inaccurate nonsense so it’s not just the Indy. Regardless of all this ability to fact check, at the end of the day most senior newspaper staff just don’t care enough about the sport and it gets through the net.
You forgot to mention (as being afully inaccurate nonsense), the Times, The Sun, The Telegraph etc etc…
Oh look! Is it time for the Leveson report to be published yet?
I know, I have read The Independent since 1986. It offers a flavour of journalism that I can live with but even they have failings. My take on it is that they have nobody on the editorial staff who much cares (or knows) about F1 but have gambled that by hiring supposedly informed writers they will get away with it. That applies in the case of DT (although one of his recent pieces bore a strking resemblance to something you had written on here a few days previously, you should have a word!) but maybe not in the case of the Ecclestone Mouthpiece.
There can’t be any value to we know who’s syndicated articles.More people who comment here (aside from me) have a better idea.
I think the comment’s you reported Joe, (attesting to the fact that some promoters (races) would be dropped) if Bernie were no longer around… is BS.
F1 races are either good value to a Country or a City that hosts them – or they are not. No one has put a gun to the head of these race organizers to host one of these events.
The bottom line is always there. Bernie ‘protects’ no event – it either makes money for CVC and himself or it is toast. He cares not if the event makes money for the organizers as long as they follow the contract to the letter – as he does himself. If you sign up for an event and later decided you want a change – tough luck, your going to waste your money on lawyers for not much gain.
I personally suspect that most of these events, (that are basically taxpayer funded) use voodoo economic numbers given to them by people with vested interests when they decide to sign the contracts. But at least they sign with eyes wide open and If feeling ‘good’ about being able to host an F1 race is worth it – then that is their choice and not mine to argue with.
I do know that my City (without an F1 event) has pretty good roads (and lower taxes) and 500kms away in Montreal they basically have created an auto mechanic’s paradise. I use a cab when visiting and hope the shocks don’t explode while I’m a passenger…
If you think it is BS then go read something else. You seem to have a wonderfully negative view of what is a very positive sport.
Steve Jobs is dead. Apple is still a creative and profitable company, and there is no sign of that changing.
If BCE drops dead tomorrow, the F1 franchise will carry on largely as before. We don’t know whether BCE has anointed a successor. Whatever happens, F1 will remain a good business for the franchise holders and a few teams on the grid. BCE’s successor, like that of Steve Jobs, will have a different character and hold different ambitions.
BCE isn’t dead.
The sport may continue, but you show a lack of understanding of Bernard’s contribution to the commercialisation of it. The key deciding moments in the financial side of the sport have largely been the result of Mr E’s direction. That is until he met Mr G.
I might be wrong but it seems JV is saying that what is “BS” is not your view Joe but the view that you yourself dismissed as BS. Seems that you both agree! No offence but did you read his email (quite understandably) jetlagged?
The answer to your question is self-evident.
I don’t have a negative view of the sport – I have a negative view of *some* of the snakes that surround this sport including but not limited to the bankers as well as the ‘journalist’ you mentioned. I spend hundreds of hours at race tracks each season as participant at the amateur level, (CASC regional race license) as well as I hold an ASN Canada officials license. I hardly think the hundreds of hours per year I put into the sport is because I am negative about it. Maybe I’m negative about taxpayers supporting millionaires (based upon non independent marketing data) while the infrastructure in some of these Cities is crumbing. OK, guilty on that point. But NOT the sport in general and not F1 specifically.
And yet…
Should Bernie disappear and then pop up in Argentina (or somewhere rather less German) having retired. He will say, in reply to the ardent clamour of “Bernie why didn’t you say you were retiring?” “Well I told Joe in Brazil! But nobody believed me”
Anyway I am sure that somewhere there is a book on when Bernie will retire and he will, via nominees place a hefty bet on the date himself.
Bernie I believe is 88 and with him looking at least a couple of years in prison surley CVC will be looking at sacking him . What’s that old saying that is used in business. Show me the indispensable one , then sack them.
Remember what the judge said about Colin Chapman, if he were alive today he would serve 10 years in prison. For me what Bernie is alleged to have done is far worse than Chapman.
Bernie is 82.
CEO of my company, in a speech to all the junior staff, gave us the career advice of never becoming indispensable.
This is the first time Bernie is showing weakness. He is genuinely scared of loosing his job and publishes a story with an extremely weak argument for still keeping it. This is pure desperation. The people at CVC are going to see right through it and will replace him for next year.
Many seem to think that BE going is long overdue but look at the idiots running Indycar to see what poor management is. The job he has done is remarkable. Without him I fear F1 would have fallen apart long ago, along the lines of Cart. If CVC are looking for execs I hope they have a chat to Randy Bernard (and most definetly not Tony George)
I read the article a few days ago and my thoughts were similar. But having just now re-read it, it is Ecclestone who is saying it. Admittedly the quote is preceded by the usual newspaper ‘we’re telling you what we’re about to tell you’ filler, but the actual assertion is Ecclestone’s-
“One day, I’m not going to be there and one of the biggest problems is I’ve got really, really good relationships with the race promoters. A few of them said to me, ‘if you’re not there, we’re not there’. That’s what the danger is. They feel that they trust me and wouldn’t want to let me down. That’s probably a very important issue. I think about retiring but I’m not going to do it. What would I do?”
I don’t regularly read The Independent (I followed the link from a news aggregator,) so I’m not familiar with its quality and political allegiances, but is it not possible that the editors at the Independent thought it worthwhile to show Ecclestone’s nonsensical desperation without blatantly saying as much?
The independent is supposed to be independent. No political affiliations.