Senior officials at the European Union "are being pressed to start an urgent investigation into the sport’s finances," according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES.
Anneliese Dodds, the MEP for South East England, has been told that the EU "has already started questioning key figures inside and outside F1, but has not yet launched a full inquiry."
Krzysztof Kuik, head of the anti-trust in sport unit at the EU’s Competition Commission, disclosed that he "has already spoken to team principals and experts who have been keeping tabs on the problems that have split F1 in two." Dodds: "We are aware of the recent allegations regarding Formula One’s governance." Representatives from Force India, Lotus and Sauber "have all been interviewed by Kuik in Brussels and at least two more figures, whose names have been withheld, have given critical accounts of the way F1 is run." Dodds has asked Kuik whether the EU "is going to start an investigation and also whether F1’s arcane system of governance," theoretically split between the FIA, as guardians of the sport, and F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, as the representative of the commercial rights holder, "is fit for purpose in the modern world, as well as questioning the EU’s approach" (LONDON TIMES, 1/5).
