End of an era.

It's not like you didn't know it was coming, sooner or later, but it's still a bit of a shock.

Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed his exit from an executive position in Formula 1.

Ecclestone has been blamed for pretty much everything wrong with F1 and people have been calling for his head for decades but will the sport automatically get better without him?

Herding cats is never easy.

Cheers Mr E. and thanks for the good bits.

"Nothing will change as long as Bernie's around" Jochen Mass says F1 has lost its soul.

"There is no soul anymore"

We had a chance to ask Jochen Mass, a survivor of 114 Grand Prix in the 70s and 80s, what he thought about the current state of Formula One.  

Mass' views reflect those of many fans and racing insiders: that the formula has "lost it's way in the technical regulations since quite a long time" and that while a spectacular technological exercise it is "too complicated and people are too removed from understanding what's going on"

Mass is currently a Mercedes Benz works driver for Historic Cars and was at Lime Rock Park for this coming week end's vintage festival where he will join Sir Stirling Moss for some demo runs in some priceless Mercedes racers.

"you don't have to be a brain surgeon to find out why (Formula One) is losing appeal"

In Mass' view Formula one should become a little simpler and more "readable" for everybody.  Current F1 is "spectacular" but "there is no soul anymore"  

Mass is convinced something will happen and F1 will eventually get it right but "As long as Bernie's around it will not happen".

"It's a big international money game" concluded Mass" I wish it would happen rather sooner than later"

In other words, drop dead Bernie?

Here is the complete clip.

Bernie says Vettel and Rosberg are bad for his business. UK tax men seek $1.55 B from him.

Bernie Ecclestone has come out again blaming the sport's trouble on drivers and teams.

""From a pure business aspect - sorry Nico if I have to say this - you are not so good for my business.”

Ecclestone put Germany's failure to come up with the fees demanded by him on the lack of popularity of Rosberg and four time champion Sebastian Vettel who  people "hardly recognize walking down the street".

Lewis Hamilton on the other hand has no problem displaying his private parts to the world via  well curated instagram and Twitter accounts and this makes him " a hero " and good for business.

Ecclestone did not stop with the drivers.  Of Toto Wolff he said nobody would recognize him without his Mercedes team shirt and that Maurizio Arrivabene is only doing himself good, not Formula One.

Of course Ecclestone himself is very recognizable which should help UK tax authorities currently seeking a whopping 1 billion pounds in back taxes on his Liechtenstein based Bambino Trust.

The fund is controlled by Ecclestone's ex wife Slavica and daughters Tamara and Petra.  Ecclestone, who himself is paid alimony by his wife,  is accused of having hidden information in 2008,  when he reached a deal  with Her Majesties Revenues & Customs over the trust.     Because of new information, that  deal has now been declared invalid

"They are the ones who are wrong" Ecclestone, currently a Swiss resident,  shoots back" I always paid everything I owed.  It's all very technical "

Well alright then.

Ecclestone confirms F1's dictatorship tour

Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that checks from the Kleptocratic Republic of Azerbaijan cleared and Formula 1 is ready to race in Baku next year.

Baku is of course one of the ancestral homes of global oil production, where the very skyline celebrates the burning of fossil fuels so it should fit right in with F1's green message.

Ecclestone hints Mercedes got extra help. Story disappears .

A bit of mystery surrounds an interview where Bernie Ecclestone apparently confirmed what many had been thinking, that Mercedes' success comes with more than a little help from the FIA.

"Mercedes knew more about the power unit because their engineers were in close contact with the FIA when the new engine concept was being defined"  Ecclestone is said told SkySport Italy.  the story was picked up by various sites and  the interview clip posted on SkySport's site but that video has since been if not deleted, certainly disabled.

What's going on here?

Bernie to young people: screw you, you don't have any money anyway.

And just for just for good measure compares struggling teams to ladies with credit cards.

I'm still reeling from reading the interview Bernie Ecclestone gave to an Asian marketing magazine.   In it, Mr. E makes the argument that chasing a younger audience with social media is pointless because younger kids will not buy the goods and services F1 advertises.

"I'd rather get to the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash. So, there's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney."

I'll grant Bernie that most 15 year olds don't buy Rolex or investment services but I can guarantee him that at that age, drawing F1 cars in school notebooks was an obsession and running epic Gran Prix with model cars on the imaginary tracks of my bedroom floor consumed many an afternoon, the seeds of a life long passion.

Like many, I did in fact go on to purchase a Rolex and a few other things since as well.

For those who used to believe racing was something beyond just an advertising conveyance method, Ecclestone pities you but not as much as he pities " that poor" Oskar Pistorius...

"This poor guy in South Africa [Oscar Pistorius], for instance, has got more interest because of what happened with him than when he was winning gold medals. He won medals and afterwards nobody thought about him."

As for the recent financial issues of smaller teams, Ecclestone compares the financially troubled teams to "ladies with credit cards"

"Just don't spend as much, These teams don't need to be in financial trouble.  They need to think about what they have to spend and do the best they can with that.  ... It's the same in everyday life, isn't it, really?  It's the same problem with ladies and credit cards."

As if Formula One did not have enough of an image problem already.   

The full interview on Campaign Asia-Pacific  via Autosport

Ding Dong: the time has come for Bernie.

A day after our rant about Mr.E and The Guardian publishes a report that, if confirmed, spells the end of Ecclestone's incredible 40 year reign over Formula One.

CVC Capital Partners , according to an insider who spoke with the paper,  will sell off  much of its 35.5% controlling interest in the sport.

Decision makers at the City-based private equity firm have decided that Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive and commercial rights holder, must go even if he wins his court case in Munich, where he is fighting bribery charges. 

They are convinced that Ecclestone, who will be 84 in October, will continue to be an embarrassment, with HM Revenue and Customs likely to ask further questions about his complex tax affairs, which formed the basis of a Panorama investigation.*

In the last weeks Ecclestone has declared social media irrelevant, wished upon the demise of smaller teams and said "bye-bye" to the Italian GP after 2015.

Of course, having followed F1 long enough, I will hedge on Bernie's vampiristic ability to transcend time and hire the very cream of the lawyer crop and make a deal.  Certainly he's made many people very much money along the way and that buys a lot of looks the other way.

You can read the complete article on the Guardian HERE

*the Panorama show is a must see,  yo might want fuse Chrome with the Hola plug in

Because history matters: The first ever Formula One Grand Prix

history?

This week end the Formula One circus will be at Silverstone where the very first Formula One race was held in 1950..  

There has been a British GP every season since, just like there has been an Italian GP every season since.  Now Bernie Ecclestone is pulling his usual stunt, threatening to erase Italy from the calendar because the current contract is not earning enough for F1's investors.   The impression is F1 has become closer to an elaborate pyramid scheme than a sport and the only thing that seems to matter is feeding it more money.

F1, wawaweewa!

History cannot be adequately monetized, bring on the Borat GP.

Alienating long time fans or refusing to embrace new ones via social media because money cannot be charged, none of it seems to matter to people who will to go away and let a new generation take over.

"Apres moi le déluge"  seems to be Bernie the XV's motto.

Briatore was Ecclestone's bag man.

Flav and Bernie

In a 90 page written statement presented to the German court trying him for bribery, Bernie Ecclestone revealed, among other things, that it was his friend and business partner Flavio Briatore who deposited the $44 million bribe to Gerhard Gribkowsky, the German banker at the heart of the case against him. Briatore, probably not thrilled to be brought in the middle of this, has yet to comment.

Bernie and Gribkowsky

The case against Ecclestone is laid out in a 256 page indictment and boils down to this payment, which Ecclestone characterizes as blackmail hush money but that German prosecutors maintain was a bribe to help the F1 boss win more favorable deal in the sale of the commercial side of Formula 1.

Ecclestone has commented on "circling vultures" gathering but we say rumors of his demise may have been greatly anticipated. Yes, he is mortal so at some point he'll step away but the likelihood of him being convicted or much less,

Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone

going to jail are slim to none. This is after all a man who has set up his affairs after his divorce so that it's his ex-wife who pays him alimony, to the tune of $100 million a year. How that happened is tied to how Ecclestone managed to pay no taxes on the sale of his shares of F1 and back around to the bribery/blackmail, the German banker threatening to alert UK tax authorities of Ecclestone's control of an offshore trust used in the deal.

Billionaire problems.

(via Independent, The Guardian, ItaliaRacing)

Ecclestone admits F1 cars don't sound that bad in person

Interviewed by Sky Sports' Ted Kravitz, Bernie Ecclestone admitted the 2014 F1 cars sound much better in person

"I think it's a little louder than we thought so if we can just get it up a little bit more than that....I wish I could get it up, but anyway....then it will be all right".  (you can watch the complete clip HERE)

Gerontological considerations aside, a lot of this noise issue on TV can be addressed by different microphone placement and EQ.   The clip below has just a simple iMovie treble boost and it sounds much better, proper work by professionals would produce even better results without the need for artificial noisemakers.

First 2014 Formula 1 news and rumor roundup

Game of Thrones: Ron Dennis is back.

Ron is back after the most disastrous season Mclaren has ever had, it probably will not be pretty at the Woking Death Star Technology Centre over the next few weeks.  
Martin Whitmarsh is not officially out yet but someone has to fall on the proverbial sword (or get passed though by it)  to make sure everything is in tip top shape for Honda's arrival in 2015.  


Don't bet against Bernie.

Ecclestone stepping down from F1's board was a move long anticipated and planned if the case went to trial.  It's a pro forma move, he's still in charge.    Bernie is 86 years old so he's not going to jail but yes, at some point he will either retire or keel over in mid-deal.   Frankly I hope for him it's the latter.  

It's not that F1 cannot run without him but it's unseemly to see how many are ready to kick Mr. E when he's down.   Of course part of it is Ecclestone's own fault,  he has not designated a successor though he has "groomed" Red Bull's Christian Horner,  someone sure to be vetoed by every other team.

Bernie is a man who lives for all those politics and deals, dirty and not, which have made fortunes for investors and teams over the years.   Despite all he has going on at his age, Bernie still finds time to flip G6's for a few million profit.
He's a born shark, don't bet against him,  you don't think headlines about a US based F1 team (CVC )  and a Nürburgring buyout (Germany) happened by chance do you?

Lotus has a radical new nose?

Some were saying the real reason Lotus is skipping testing at Jerez next week is not (just)  because of lack of funds or because they find testing at colder temperatures not very helpful but because they had come up with an innovative solution for their nose which did not fly with the tech bosses at the FIA when it showed up for crash testing.  However latest is that, whatever they finally came up with is all kosher with Charlie Whiting.

Pirelli here to stay for the next three seasons

Pirelli got a lot of stick for making performance limiting tires as they were asked.   s part of the deal, Pirelli will get limited testing opportunities with current cars.


Ricciardo banned from surfing.

There is some irony in Red Bull, of all teams, banning Daniel Ricciardo from surfing in the wake of poor Schumacher's accident while Ferrari put out a statement to the effect of "our drivers are grown ups, we trust they can decide what is dangerous and what is not"

Be Bernie for a Year

I wrote about this for Road and Track earlier this week,  I though you might get a kick out of it here too:

For a minimum bid of $1,000,000 you can own what might be the the largest, heaviest, most exhaustive book ever made about a Formula 1 season yet to take place:  850 pages, 75 pounds of glossy paper bound in carbon fiber and silver plate.  

But, as they say on late night TV, "that's not all".  Included in the $1M+ will be tickets to all of the Grand Prix in 2014 including seating for four in the Paddock Club.  If you order now they will also include tea with Bernie at each venue* ,  all access paddock pass and invitations to all VIP events.

It would be the ultimate no expense barred luxury F1 experience and you can pretend to be Bernie for a year**.  I'm pretty sure it will sell.

Only in F1.



*if Bernie is free to attend.
**no you cannot have tea with his young Brazilian wife.

Ecclestone

Everyone's getting very excited about Bernie Ecclestone being formally indicted in the German bribery scandal.

I would not bet against Bernie, ever.   You don't swim in the F1 shark pool without some very sharp teeth and the money behind F1 is sticking with the old man as long as he is in the position to do his job: make them money.  The only thing that might prevent him from doing that would be if he if jailed, which won't happen.

More interesting would be to  figure out who his real enemies, and after 30 plus years of Formula One you know these must be a few,  are.  Look for people sitting on the proverbial banks of the river waiting for the corpse to float by.  

My guess is they will be waiting a while.

Testgate: Keeping The Customer Happy

Photo: DigitalReflections/Flickr

Forgive us for being cynical but we've been following F1 for too long not to be.   Mercedes had been literally melting tires from the first race of the season much to the continued embarrassment of higher ups who have seen the Silver Arrows miss their targets since 2010 despite high profile engagements of Michael Schumacher and now Lewis Hamilton.  

Solution number one was to blame Pirelli and, after much praise given to the Italian manufacturer for producing a tire which added spice to racing, you saw a very coordinated campaign by the press to discredit the very thing they praised weeks earlier.  Would it be evil to point out where those same journalists get their credential and access from?  

As for Pirelli, they are facing a PR disaster if forced to  leave the sport with the impression they could not make a "good tire",  it's no surprise they jumped at the chance to help themselves and a key team, instrumental in renewal of their F1 contract not to mention a big production car tire customer.

Mercedes, aside from the AMG Petronas F1 team, produces engines for Mclaren  and Force India,   Williams will get MB power next year.  That's four out of eleven teams next year.

You may have noticed the Safety and Medical cars.  A fair number of trucks pulling paddock infrastructure have a three pointed star on the front of the cabs.

Mercedes is the only mass market luxury car manufacturer involved in F1, if  they became unhappy and left the sport, it would not be good news for Formula One and its investors.   You don't think Hamilton landed at AMG by accident, do you?

So is it really a surprise the test happened at all?  AMG Petronas got three races worth of running and suddenly their rear suspensions are not eating tires anymore.   Mercedes is smiling.

What would be a surprise is if the FIA slap Mercedes with a truly significant penalty.  How much  tension is there between the Bernie Ecclestone/ FOM  and Jean Todt's FIA?

Week end at Bernie's

You can't understand Formula 1 without understanding the recently re married Bernie Ecclestone. This is at least one version of his story...

The Last Privateer

Reading about thet horrible Maria De Villota's accident, you may have read about how her father Emilio De Villota used to be a Formula One driver.

Mario Donnini wrote an article about Emilio's adventures of Autosprint.  It is not only an interesting sidebar but a fascinating bit of Formula One history, happening right at that moment when the series changed dramatically and forever.

Maria De Villota's dramatic accident turned back the spotlight on one of Spain's beloved racing families, up to now known mostly for the passions and tribulations of Emilio.

Madrid, end of 1976.  For a spaniard  in the post Franco era,  Formula 1 is little more than a dream.  Emilio De Villota is almost thirty an knows he will never impress any team manager, but he's not one to give up.  From a wealthy background, a bank manager and  owner of a manufacturer of articles for children, he has many friends among the sporting authorities and the confidence to jump into a seemingly impossible situation.

He started racing late, in national touring cars, then tries theShellsport Gr8 series in the UK. In that marvelously insane Formula 1 where in 1976 season 56 different drivers sign up for at least one GP,  Emilio got behind the wheel of an old Brabham  run by John McDonald and Team Ram and tried to qualify for Jarama, his home race.  Nada, he qualifies 28th, the last to be cut from the starting grid.

Back in Great Britain, racing in F5000 with Lyncar, Emilio does a little accounting and gets his crazy idea.  Crazy but not stupid,  F1 is an open circus,  used cars are inexpensive, there is no Superlicense, tires can be found cheap.  Electronics are still a dream  and you could run a team with a bunch of friends recruited at the local bar.  A round of phone calls, a few promises and the miracle really did happen.

Epic or clown show? the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix.

This may be one of the most epic F1 shots ever but no doubt the race was an epic clown show

Next time you feel like complaining about Formula One's odd rule and regulatory decisions, consider the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix and you'll go light a candle to Saint Bernie Ecclestone.

No qualifying required for "celebrity" drivers and teams, a scuffle with police on the grid, the race not stopped despite a huge active fire and fire fighting foam spread across the racing circuit (actually, Bernie might some ideas there...), only five out of sixteen cars cross the finish line.
Remember it before you pine for the good ol'days.

Formula 1: Ferrari and Red Bull lap Mclaren and Mercedes

Ferrari and Red Bull have assured at least an economic advantage over act rivals Mclaren and Mercedes by signing the new Formula 1 Concorde agreement with Bernie Ecclestone well ahead of old Agreement 2012 expiration date.

The Concorde agreement, as you know, regulates sharing from Formula One commercial rights revenues and in the current agreement stipulated 47% to the teams. That 47% is divided according to points scored but by signing early (as early as November 2011 according to some reports) Ferrari and Red Bull almost certainly negotiated a hefty "loyalty bonus" for themselves leaving Mclaren and Mercedes fuming and with little leverage.

Formula One, it's 360 degree global thermonuclear competition warfare.
(Via Autosprint)

.

Hints of missing cattle from Texas Grand Prix as Ecclestone yells "Where's the beef?"

Two articles today shed light on Bernie's recent comments casting the 2012 US grand Prix in Austin in doubt and raising the possibility that the Circuit of the Americas might end up as a Texas sized hole in the ground.

Essentially it boils down to FOM not getting paid agreed to fees yet and an intramural fight between Tavo Hellmund, the original promoter and signer of the 10 year contract with Formula 1 and the land owner and principal financial investor. Part of the deal was $25 million per year for the event fee to be paid by Texas state funds, these taxpayer monies have not moved yet and more worryingly, paperwork has not been filed.

It all comes to a head in early December when Formula 1 has to finalize the 2012 calendar.

Read more in detail on Steven Cole Smith on Autoweek and Pitpass

.

Watch Fernando Alonso Drift the 1951 Ferrari 375 F1

Before the 2011 British GP at Silverstone, Fernando Alonso got to drive Bernie Ecclestone own Ferrari 375 F1. It was in this same car that José Froilán "Cabezón" Gonzáles won the 1951 British GP amidst the corn fields of Silverstone.

I'm surprised nobody complained Alonso got an unfair advantage getting extra laps behind that glorious 4500cc Lampredi V12... oh wait, it's the internet, I'm sure someone has. :). Nando's first lap is for waving but then he takes another extra lap for a little vintage style 4 wheel drifts...nice!



.