Long-time Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has claimed new owners Liberty Media “haven’t done anything yet” to improve the sport despite all their bluster upon completing their takeover at the start of the year.
The 86-year-old has maintained his voice when it comes to airing views on those who replaced him after some 40 years in January and even got into a brief spat with current CEO and Chairman Chase Carey earlier in the year.
Offering his latest musings on the current state of F1, Ecclestone believes Carey, along with Commercial Director Sean Bratches and Motorsport Director Ross Brawn, have found it much harder than they imagined to invoke their vision going forward onto the rest of the sport’s power players.
“They haven’t done anything yet as far as I can see,” he said to the Daily Mail. “They said they wouldn’t talk, they would act. They said I talked before doing anything. I didn’t. I got things done quietly.
“All they do is talk. They said they wanted six races in America, for example. If I say I am going to whack someone next time I see them, I’d better bloody well do it.”
It is believed the future shape of F1 could start to be revealed in the coming weeks as the 2021 engine rules and a first stage budget cap from 2019 could be announced at the end of the month.
As for the future relationship between the teams and commercial rights holder, that is still one area that is being determined, with the current Concorde Agreement set to expire after 2020.
Regardless, Ecclestone thinks the new man in charge has found it much harder than he thought to invoke his vision onto the other main power players in the sport.
“Chase had preconceived ideas of what needed to be done,” he stated. “But now he’s on board, it isn’t quite as easy as he thought. So I feel sorry for him.”
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As for his own status, though Ecclestone remains on the board in the honorary role of Chairman Emeritus, he suggested Liberty have in effect, told him to stay away from the paddock as he explained his reduced attendances this season.
“Chase sent a message to one of the girls in the office to tell me that they haven’t got so many offices at the circuits, only what the race promoter gives them,” he commented.
“There are three of them, so the three offices are being used. So basically they don’t want me to come to races. It would have been just as easy to have said that to me. Anyway, I have obliged them.”
And as for the title battle that has developed this season, the Briton believes his fellow countryman will get the job done sooner rather than later.
“Lewis Hamilton will win it in Austin next race,” he claimed, with the Mercedes driver needing to win and Sebastian Vettel lower than fifth to do so. “He has driven superbly this season, while Ferrari awoke and then fell asleep.”
