Bernie Ecclestone looks set to have more of his old power and continue to lead Formula One into a new era which could see peace agreed by Wednesday.
Despite days of doubt after a comment about Adolf Hitler ‘getting things done’ and the very real threat of a breakaway by eight teams, Ecclestone has not lost control of his empire.
Technically an employee of the owners of F1 – CVC – a private equity company which has the commercial rights to the sport, Ecclestone, 78, has no equal in the tricky art of holding together an amalgam of egos, car manufacturers’ boards and rivalries. UK Express
The meeting was described in considerable detail. It was attended by, among others, Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the marketing agency, and a board member of CVC, and Peter Brabeck, a senior figure at Nestlé, both of whom are Jewish and were said to be outraged at Ecclestone’s view that Hitler was a man who could “get things done”.
The suggestion was that CVC had decided enough was enough and that the 78-year-old billionaire, who has run the sport for the past 30 years, should be “moved upstairs”.
The Formula One commercial rights-holder was surprised. He described the reports as “b*****ks” and took the unusual course of action of phoning Donald Mackenzie, the normally media-shy managing partner and co-founder of CVC, to set the record straight.
But rather than speak to Mackenzie himself, Ecclestone handed the phone — the ringtone of which is set to the theme tune from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — to The Times. After being told of the rumoured meeting, Mackenzie decided that it was time to go on the record. “It’s absolute rubbish — we had no meeting, no meeting took place to discuss the future of Bernie Ecclestone,” he said. “It’s complete and utter crap.”
So is Ecclestone’s position safe, despite the furore he has caused in recent days? “Of course Bernie Ecclestone’s position is safe, he’s the chief executive,” Mackenzie said.
He added that he had not even seen Sorrell recently, let alone discussed Ecclestone’s future with him. “There were no discussions at CVC either in board meetings or at any other level about replacing Bernie,” he said. Mackenzie made clear, however, that the Hitler comments had been a cause for very serious concern and had been raised with Ecclestone.
“We are quite clear and on the record that we were not happy with his statements about Hitler and we told him so,” Mackenzie said. But he underlined again that Ecclestone was still very much in charge of a business that generates a gross income of$1 billion (about £617 million) a year. “All meetings and deals with the teams are done usually with Bernie present or with his full knowledge,” Mackenzie said.
The phone was handed back to Ecclestone, who could not help having a joke at his own expense with Mackenzie. “Oh,” he told him in his characteristic whisper, “I was hoping the story was right — I was looking for the golden handshake.”
With political manoeuvring and infighting in the sport at fever pitch in the wake of Ecclestone’s recent difficulties and with the threat of a breakaway series by the teams still shaking Formula One’s foundations, plus the endless machinations of Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, over his future, there were any number of theories about who could have come up with what appears to be a clear attempt to cut Ecclestone’s legs from underneath him. Times Online
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