Zoxxo

Bernie Ecclestone no longer runs Formula One!

This is truly an historic day!

First Bernie was allowed to make the announcement:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ec...-of-f1-868019/

Then Liberty Media (soon to be known as "The Formula One Group") made their own announcement and clarified Bernie's new position in the scheme of things:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/li...e-role-868053/

I wasn't sure that I'd live to see the day.

Z//

dmaxx3500

great news

Zoxxo

Possibly? Probably? "The devil you know" and all that. I agree that a change is needed but, given 40 years of huge success via Bernie's steerage it's not easy to imagine some other entity stepping in and doing a better job.

Fingers crossed.

Z//

Nowanker

Not holding my breath for the future of F1, but it sure has been wild up to now!
No news of Mercedes driver lineup? I vote for Bottas... Williams is totally mercenary, and I'm sure he could be bought out of his contract. It'd probably make Hamilton pee his pants.

apex26

Thank God!!

Zoxxo

You're not paying attention. They officially announced Bottas to Merc (and Massa back to Williams) last week:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/me...te-865891/?s=1

And Massa:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ma...nt-865853/?s=1

And Wehrlein:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/we...on-865846/?s=1


I doubt that Hamilton will feel too threatened as Bottas will take some time to settle in with the team by which time LH will be long gone points-wise. Not that I wish for that too happen but I think it's the most likely scenario. Besides, Merc doesn't care - they just want someone who can keep Red Bull at bay re: the constructor's championship.

Z//

chetly

please bring back 20,000rpm v8!!!

Zoxxo

Heck, bring back the v10s and v12s of old.

Ross Brawn thinks that if they continue down this "road car relevant" pathway the sport will be history in 20 years as the road cars are all going electric and no one will pay money to watch "silent movies". He wants to bring back "crazy" and "loud". And now he's in charge of the sporting side of F1 so that's probably a good thing. Again, fingers crossed.

Z//

Nowanker

You're right! I wasn't paying attention!
I have high hopes for Bottas this season. I like Lewis Hamilton, no doubt he is well talented, but I think Bottas might give him a run. And when Wehrlein's F1 career peters out, there's certainly a modeling contract in his future...

el es tu

Mandatory fuel mileage, active aero (drs), and hybridization don't belong in this sport just because the auto industry is going that way. These cars should feature high output large displacement naturally aspirated engines with the lightest possible chassis.

A 900 -1000hp N/A V12 in a 500 to 600 kg chassis would be perfect... racing is a spectator sport/ entertainment business and whatever makes the consumers excited and stirs up emotion is what should be pursued to keep viewership up

spearfish25

Bernie being gone is the best thing that could happen to F1. The idiot actually said he isn't interested in a young fan demographic and only cared about wealthy middle and older age males. Moron. Youth are the future to F1 success.

rfn026

Bernie built F1. I just don't get why people are always angry about Bernie.

It was a small European sport and no one made much money. Bernie changed all that. He improved safety and he helped a lot of people become multi-millionaires.

F1 is now a world wide sport with huge attendance numbers.

If you think back at one point IndyCar and F1 were roughly equal. F1 had Bernie. IndyCar had no one. Compare the 2 series today.

Richard Newton
Historic Racing Images

Zoxxo

Well, you hit one reason right on the nose there. It was a *sport* and he made it a *business* (along with Colin Chapman.) Sport fans aren't interested in "making multimillionaires" and, in fact, will pretty much always see that as an overall negative.

Indeed. No one is arguing that fact. But, as I said, it's not the issue that you're questioning which is why people get angry re: Bernie.

Again, this is a *business* issue and not a sporting issue. The fans (and Bernie's *many* detractors within the sport!) have always taken issue with his primary focus being money with the long-term health of the sport taking a distinct back seat. In fact, there has been a stunning lack of *any* long-term view from Bernie. His cavalier attitude towards the classic tracks, and F1's history in general, has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way for far too long. So, while there is certainly recognition of what he has done to build the thing to where it stands today, a lot of folks feel that he did so while throwing a lot of valued elements under the bus over the years. So far, the new folks seem to agree with that assessment, too.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns35652.html

And even better:

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/br...f1-868446/?s=1

They say that Mussolini made the trains run on time - a good thing - but then, you had to deal with Mussolini. The trade-off is somewhat debatable.

Z//

Torch FRC

Bring back the NA V12s!!!

NemesisC5

Zoxxo

Well, at least so far they are making noises that sound quite positive. I like that Ross Brawn is leading the sporting side of things. He's got a solid head on his shoulders, clearly sees where Bernie was falling down, and (gasp) grasps the concept of "long term planning and goals."

He's also against all the hybrid crap. :applause:

It's funny reading the Brit commentators' sly snarks over all the "Superbowl" references. My guess is that they'll change that tune (at least a little) after reading how Liberty values the "legacy" races and that they clearly want to protect them (Silverstone among them.)

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/li...ift-f1-868513/

Z//

spdislife

One of my concerns was seeing more of the legacy races fall by the wayside in pursuit of euros. Also all the hybrid crap seemed to be a preemptive politically correct move to silence critics of motor sports, and I don't like politically correct. With Brawn involved, that gives me a measure of confidence.

Also, Bernie is 86 years old and the laws of probability say he isn't going to be around much longer. Better to have this move occur in a voluntary and planned manner versus one that would happen if he suddenly passed.

Zoxxo

Yeah, I won't at all miss the endless, public "negotiations" (aka threats) from Bernie designed to pump up the cash fountains.

While I think that might have played a small part, I'm much more inclined to see this is just an extension of Bernie's *highly* visible (for years and years) plans and ploys to get more cash flow available to him. The big manufacturers are/were pulled into F1 for that reason. From Bernie's point of view they, like every government on the planet, are little more than huge bank accounts that he wanted access to. So, if Mercedes is willing to open their vault to him in exchange for something that Mercedes wants... Remember, to get access to the vault requires a company's board of director' approval and BODs have to justify such expenses to their shareholders. If you can justify it all as "R&D for future road car technology" then...

I'd love to know the real story behind that aspect of it. Did Bernie finally come to grips with the ultimate fact of life and surrender for the good of the series? His statement re: the ludicrous rumor that he was going to start up a competing series seems telling in this regard (IMO):
He had to know that he could/would heavily damage F1 if he croaked with no succession plan in place. Certainly CVC would have been nervous about that scenario for several years now.

Z//