To some, Formula One is first and foremost a sport; to Bernie Ecclestone, the man who has done more than anyone else to make it what it is today, it remains first and foremost a business — and one that has made him fabulously rich.
No surprise, then, that the sport’s commercial rights-holder is hoping that Jenson Button does not win the World Championship this weekend in Brazil, because that would be a huge setback for Ecclestone’s newest client, the governing family of Abu Dhabi, who have spent a fortune building a circuit for the final race of the season, on November 1.
The last thing they want is for Button to wrap up the drivers’ championship at Interlagos on Sunday so that the inaugural day-night race at the Yas Marina Circuit, part of a $35billion (about £22billion) development complete with purpose-built marina and hotel, becomes one giant switch-off.
Ecclestone is hoping the Englishman will think of him and his friends in the Gulf and not finish on the podium in Brazil, which would guarantee him the title.
“I would like to see him do me a big favour and get the World Championship clinched in Abu Dhabi, but if he can’t wait, well, I understand that,” Ecclestone said on Tuesday. “But who knows what’s going to happen?”
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