#360view: Ecclestone will always be Mr. F1

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Ecclestone divided opinion.

    Bernie Ecclestone’s rise to the top of F1 is a genuine rags to riches story. The son of a fisherman came from a background where he had to fight for everything he had.

    He is a natural born negotiator always looking to close a deal on his terms. Even in his schooldays he would trade in whatever was available, be it sweets, cakes or toys and he would always be the main beneficiary.

    After leaving school he took a regular job but soon started buying and selling motorcycles and parts and a combination of business acumen and a love for engines took him into the second hand car business where he had a reputation for absolute ruthlessness and a mind as sharp as a razor.

    After being tricked by a rival he got his own back some time later by offering the man a ‘Mercedes 230 SL Hardtop’ for an attractive price. The guy paid in cash and Ecclestone duly told him “the hardtop is in the street outside” and that is all there was – no car. You don’t mess with Bernie.

    His involvement in motorsport began when a group of enthusiasts turned a disused airfield into a racetrack, now known as Silverstone, and even that was for the business opportunities it created.

    He got into Formula One in the days when it was an amateurish affair and he actually managed teams and drivers, including Jochen Rindt who was killed in a crash in 1970 but awarded the world championship posthumously. He bought the Brabham team in 1971 which led to him becoming head of the Formula One Constructors Association with Max Mosley as his legal advisor. In those days television companies paid to cover Formula One on a race-by-race basis because there was no guarantee all the teams would show up.

    Ecclestone realised the financial potential of selling the sport as a complete package and got the teams to sign a contract guaranteeing their participation in all races.

    He and Mosley ended up on the FIA committee and Ecclestone basically took over the entire commercial side of F1, and it didn’t take him long to amass a personal fortune currently estimated to be £3.1billion. And, by the way, he also made others in the sport rich.

    Now, after an astonishing, mostly autocratic, reign that lasted forty years – despite several attempts to get rid of him – Ecclestone’s days as the most powerful man in Formula One are finally over.

    In recent years he has never been far away from power struggles and controversy, paying a German court £60m to end a bribery trial and coughing up another hefty sum to swerve a tax avoidance case. But whatever you think of this man – and he has upset many people along the way with controversial remarks about women drivers amongst his worst faux pas – he is responsible for taking the sport, realising its potential as a brand before anybody else, and turning it into a global success story.

    The fact Liberty Media has paid £6.4billion to take control is testimony to that. There is absolutely no question that Bernie’s time, and his dictatorial methods, are outdated and that, at the age of 86, he has probably lost touch with the demands of modern motorsport.

    Formula One has become predictable, boring, is in need of freshening up and we are going to see the start of that this season.

    He has negotiated his final F1 deal but his legacy will live on and it is one that must be respected. Like him, loathe him or fear him, Bernie Ecclestone, will forever, be Mr Formula One.

    Recommended