Bernie Ecclestone’s once unshakeable grip on Formula 1 has unmistakably loosened in recent days, with the F1 supremo admitting he was at fault for the financial woes facing the mid- and lower-ranked teams.
“There is too much money being distributed badly,” Ecclestone admitted in the build up to last week’s United States Grand Prix.
“Probably my fault,” he added. “Like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time. I know what’s wrong, but don’t know how to fix it.”
In response there was a very real threat that Force India, Lotus and Sauber were going to boycott the race in Austin. Thankfully, for US F1 fans, who are used to being shafted by the sport, that mini-crisis was averted.
But it wasn’t Ecclestone who saved the day, it was Donald MacKenzie, co-chairman of F1’s largest shareholder, CVC Capital Partners.
MacKenzie called Lotus boss Gerard Lopez and assured him his concerns would be addressed, regardless of Ecclestone’s position. Therefore, it was only Caterham and Marussia who were missing from the starting grid, as expected.
Up to £100m in base payments is said to be distributed among the smaller teams, irrespective of their championship positions, with a view to securing their medium-term participation.
“To be honest, it’s really not a complicated thing to do,” said Lopez. “It just requires a bit of goodwill. The overall amount we’re discussing, once you start dividing it by the number of teams, is not that massive.
“I really think there is a way to solve this in the coming days, probably even to get to a proposal before Brazil [next Sunday]. In which case I don’t see the point in doing anything drastic that would damage the sport.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber Team Principal, added: “Nobody is asking for anything unreasonable here. We have to recognise times have changed, the level to enter Formula 1 has changed.
“There was a reason for the system earlier, now things have really changed, so one has to rethink that. We have all put in too much investment into this. You can’t just let it fizzle out.”
[Source: The Guardian & BBC | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]