Bernie Ecclestone was "deposed" as CEO of Formula 1 in January after "one of the longest running reigns in sport, driven out of power by American conglomerate Liberty Media," according to Oliver Holt of the London DAILY MAIL. It marked the end of a "tumultuous 12 months which shook Ecclestone's professional and private lives." But "self-pity has never been his thing," and as the new F1 season starts, he is "as busy as he has ever been." Ecclestone: "Since I've been out of work, I've been flat out. Lots of things. Other people's problems. Everything. Whatever. People know I'm no longer doing what I should do, so they contact me." He "has been handed the honorary title" of F1's chair emeritus, but the day after Liberty Media completed its £6B ($7.4B) takeover of F1 from private equity firm CVC in January, he was informed that Chase Carey "was taking over" as CEO. What Ecclestone's new role with the company entails "remains to be seen." He said, "The last thing I am is an ambassador. I'd be a bad one, actually." What "is clear" is that Liberty wants to "take F1 in a different direction." It wants to be seen as "modernizers" and is "uneasy about the sport's association with regimes in places such as Azerbaijan and Bahrain." Liberty believes the sport "has become too elitist" and wants to make it "more open and accessible." That "jars" with Ecclestone's philosophy. He said, "They have an American culture and at an American race everyone is in the paddock and the pits and they can chat with the drivers and sit in their cars. In F1, we have been running a five-star Michelin restaurant, not a hamburger joint. But maybe now the cuisine will be more accessible. Maybe it will even have a better taste" (DAILY MAIL, 3/18).
CUTTING COSTS: MOTORSPORT's Valentin Khorounzhiy reported Force India Deputy Principal Bob Fernley said that Liberty Media "should focus in the short term on controlling costs in the championship to make a more level playing field." The Indian outfit -- and Fernley in particular -- "have emerged as vocal critics of both top-team power and income distribution" in F1 in the final years prior to Liberty's takeover. Now, with the American company "in charge and having already enacted operational change," Fernley said, "The three things we have been looking at are getting costs under control, better distribution of income -- and those two factors will give us competition. If there can be a more inclusive system of franchise, those are the three things we have been pushing hard for" (MOTORSPORT, 3/18).
