Should Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone go?

Frank Praverman

Sir Jackie Stewart told Edward Gorman exclusively in today's Times that it's time to put an end to Bernie and Max's power show.

The three-time world champion said: "Bernie has such power that he could suffocate almost any performer who would dare to suggest change," and went on to declare: "the FIA should replace Mosley with somebody not from within its organisation, or even motor sport."

When Sir Jackie speaks, the world listens. But is he right this time? Does Formula One need a shake-up at the top? Have these two giants of business taken the sport as far as they can?

Have your say below.

Comments

[Craig]

Jackie is 100% correct, enough is enough! The team owners need to force the issue! Bernie should be given some respectable role in the background but the decision making should be taken away from him.

F1 doesnt need Max even if he needs F1, he has disgraced himself and the sport and needs to go!

[Al redman]

Ecclestone has built the sport into a wonderful sport that spans the globe. No sport comes as close to the excitement, power, glamour and wealth of F1.

Why should it be taken away from the man that built it?

[Derek Smith]

The FiA is just the regulator. It should just make and enforce - fairly might be handy - the rules. That is all. Mosley has interfered beyond this remit, putting up costs to the teams. He has ignored the Concorde Agreement when it suited him and is now trying to rip the heart out of the sport by making it a sort of more powerful Formula Ford. This so-called cost reducing program of his is nonsense. If the money is there then the teams will spend it if, as now one would assume, it is not, then they won’t.

Mosley seems intent on ridding the grid of the manufacturers – even his admitted favourite team, Ferrari – and suggesting that we should have independent teams, but the changes he has brought into motor racing seems to ensure that the likes of Frank Williams/Patrick Head, Ron Dennis, Ken Tyrell and others will not be able to make their way through the lower formulae.

The ultimate test of the person in charge is how the sport is going. Mosley’s recent history, with the FiAsco of the de facto one-car Indy race, the mountain out of nothing farce of Stepneygate and the dreadful publicity when he was filmed, seems intent on ridding the sport of sponsors and investors. Who would want to be associated with such a man?

And as for Bernie – well! If a circuit is built on rice or is surrounded by sand then he’ll allow the cars to race. If it’s a circuit that is steeped in history, has full grandstands and waiting lists, then he’ll ignore it. How can we have an F1 season without a race in America, Britain, Germany and France? Because that is the prospect staring us in the face. Can he not see the ridiculousness of having to bus non-paying spectators to Bahrain and China? And to kick Silverstone into touch just because the BRDC doesn’t want to bankrupt itself despite one having to book a grandstand seat by April just seems nonsensical.

The old order changeth. The cars on the 2008 grid were nothing like those that were there when Mosley and Ecclestone took over our sport. The F1 cars of that era are placed in museums and brought out a few times a year so that enthusiasts can gawp at them in wonder that they were ever allowed in Grand Prix racing. That’s what we should do with Ecclestone and especially Mosley.

They are yesterday’s men. Not too bad in their time but that is now long gone.

[Chris]

Jackie stewart is right especially on how the money is divvied up. How on earth are the F1 tracks which recieve little or no governmental support ment to survive as commercial entities with no income besides ticket sales in addition to having to pay bernie for the priviledge to lose money

[godfrey]

Of course Jackie Stewart is correct in saying it is time for both Max and Bernie to go. They have long held too much individual power over motor racing and its finances, and we are long overdue for a change. Whatever Bernie and Max have achieved in making participants (and themselves) in F1 very wealthy, power held for too long inevitably corrupts.

[Stefano Z.]

They have to stay. Defenitely!!Mr Mosley did a great job on safety matter.Mr Ecclestone is still working hard every day on his business.I don t think that he need to work so much.If he is doing so, it s just because he loves his business and he has a huge passion for it.Lots of people must to learn from him.A very easy example is his last idea about the medals scoring sistem.It s a new extraordinary idea.A very cheap way to have more show in a F1 race..... I am sorry Mr Stewart.

[Fiona]

And who is Jackie Stewart?Just because he is Sir now, he has opinions on everything?The day Bernie goes F1 is history.Bernie maintains the right balance between a lot of greedy people who dispute the power and they fear him.The day he disappears it will all crumble like a castle of cards.It is easy to talk, the difficult is to make things work...

[Stirling66]

two words cover it all: greed and power. Moseley and Ecclestone must retire

[Nick]

They are past their 'sell by date' - and some of the deals/compromises made on tyres and other standards were highly controversial, if not financially suspect.

Let us run Motor Sport professionally !!!

[Doug Hand]

At long last, someone with real respect in the sport, has spoken out and said, what an awful lot of people have thought for some time now.
Enough is enough and it is time for change.
Recently all the information has come to the surface, which a lot of people must have thought was the situation for a long time now, ie two people have too much power over a multi million pound sport ,where
the the real participants have the minority control.

Now is the time for a completre change.

Doug Hand

[Jorge Lardone]

Yes, both Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone must go out of F1 now!
Mr. Stewart is right.

[Jack]

Great analysis, I wonder how many other F1 fans share Sir Jackie’s view and believe the relationship between promoter and regulator must be kept at arms length for the sport to win back it’s integrity, and that Mosley and Ecclestone need to step aside before this can begin to happen.

[Kerry]

F1 used to be (and should be) about drivers, cars and circuits, not about Moseley and/or Ecclestone.

[Mark Kenyon]

Its way past time for a change, F1 is no longer the play thing for 2 Entrepreneur's who treat the sport like their personal "game", who make arbitrary decisions and seem to set the regulations themselves....as an outsider to both industries I would say that there is a strong Parallel with the way F1 is run and the banking industry....I rest my case.

[Barry]

Bernie developed F1 into a Global attraction and has proven himself to be the most successfull motorsport entrepeneur.Yes he is a control freak but maybe he has to be to protect the commercial interests of F1,and I beleive his business acumen is beyond reproach.
It takes his style of mamagement I beleive to ensure the future of F1.I am sure many are jealeous of his wealth and success and their criticism is personal not impartial.I find Jackie Stewarts comments about Bernies selfish greed correct, but again to run F1 you need to be ruthless remember Churchill got the job done but he didnt win the popularity stakes.
With reference to Max I think he should stop existing in the shadow of his giant ego and listen more to the people that understand how to develope the F1 race cars of the future.You can cut the costs by all means it is important for the survival of the sport,but not at the cost of cutting the motivation for teams to compete ,find the balance ,I fear Max is a man of extremes and enjoys creating conflict yes sometimes good comes from conflict but at this time it is a very dangerous game to play....cool it Max or step down.

[R.Drapper]

Somehow Jackie 'rentaquote' Stewart has lost credibility.
Sure he did good works in his day and was a WDC....but that was all so long ago, and his apparent tenacious grip on self publicity and his apparent willingness to provide a quote at the drop of a chequered flag undermines any contribution to the debate that may be lurking under the 'look at me, don't forget me' exterior.
Move over J.S.....your day is done and whatever private battles that you may or may not have with B.E and Sir Max should be just that....private!

[Russ Beach]

I have followed F1 all my adult life, from Mike Hawthorne and John Surtees to the wonderful Lewis Hamilton. It is a sport/business that has no parallel in the world.That Max and Bernie have made it into the spectacle that it, no doubt is, is power to their respective elbows. However the only constant is that all things change. Some of the astronomical amounts of money amassed by the wily twosome should now be ploughed back into a sport that is struggling to survive in the current economic climate. We cannot afford to lose any more manufacturers. When the economics have been levelled out, that is the time for both of them to resign and make way for younger and fairer principals, preferably from outside F1, with no axe to grind.

[Scull]

Time to go for both. The sport is in big trouble. Both getting more and more boring and financially not viable. Profits need to be put back into the business. Not taken out by the pint-sized, gimp suited bosses. It would be more interesting to take it to new cities each year. make venues bid for it simiar to world cup or Olympics. Then every for 5 years do it again. Big oil, Tobacco and Accounting firms can no longer front up the cash needed. Melbourne city has to justify what it costs them every year to shut the city down and the pro-f1 voice is diminishing. Time for a freshening up of ideas and leadership

[Colin Whewell]

Anyone who was at Silverstone in 1969 when the GP won by Stewart after an epic battle with Jochen Rindt will remember the day didn’t lack any excitement, power or glamour! It also had something now sadly missing, accessibility for the fans. But what F1 didn’t have was much money for distribution to entrants and drivers. That came with the introduction of sponsorship (remember the Lotus 49 in Gold Leaf colours?) and TV revenues and changed the balance of power as Ecclestone rested control of the Formula from race organisers over the years and made those original team owners and drivers rich beyond their dreams. His role and contribution cannot therefore be under-estimated. Nor should Sir Jackie’s. He was forthright and vocal and campaigned relentlessly at a time when deaths amongst drivers was a regular event, for the introduction of even basic medical facilities, which until then were almost non-existent, often facing a hostile response from circuit owners. Few drivers ever contribute significantly outside of driving the car so who better than one of the greatest drivers of all time and certainly one of the most articulate, to so eloquently express the views of many at what F1 has now become. I applaud the comments made by Sir Jackie on the need for fundamental change in F1. As for Mosely, the less said about him the better.

[Michael Grinks]

Stewart was unpopular in his day for his stance on safety. But he was right then and he is now. The sport needs a revamping on many levels . Over the past two years the actions of Mosley and Ecclestone have seemed a bit arrogant and ill advised--the harsh treatment of McLaren, dropping Silverstone--or downright silly, medals ???-- and have made it look as if they might not be the ones to do the job.

F1 was a great sport before they came along. They made it a great business. I don't expect either of them to go unless it suits them to do so. And I don't think it is necessary or important to lynch either one of them. But the questions Stewart (and Montezemolo) have raised need some serious thought by those who will be around when Max and Bernie are gone.

[EL-GRECO]

Ever since the former FIA chief JM Balestre was removed by the unique democratic process of the governing body’s elections, it was pretty clear what was going to happen. The unregulated monopoly run by Mr Ecclestone now had the full legal support of Mr Mosley. From busting up anything that could faintly resemble competition to F1, to setting up the FIA’s headquarters in Switzerland when it was unknown how effective an EU monopolies commission could be, the partners have consistently been at least three steps ahead of everyone else. That giant vacuum cleaner that sucked everything out of motorsport for the benefit of F1 was nothing new to anyone, least of all the characters that today complain the Max and Bernie Show is bad for the sport’s image. Logic says it would have been easier to dismantle the arrangement 10 or more years ago, but financially it didn’t suit the players at the time. Today, they are probably not going to be strong enough to do it because those two are indeed the smartest guys in the room, but I guarantee you that if by any chance they do feel brave enough to put up a fight, this is one part of F1 that will beat watching any F1 race you care to think of. Finally a little unorchestrated excitement is coming F1’s way.

[pinaster]

Hey, Frank! Who sets your agenda? Do you want to set our agenda? Too bad that that you cant find anything more interesting to keep this blog alive. But who cares about Max and Bernie? Just read the coments in this thread and you will have the answer. And please, remember that I won put a buck of mine on this two souls, but are you going to tell us who is going to take their place if they leave? Will they be democartically elected, or will they be choosen by their recognized honesty, prestige and excellence? Whos pulling the strings?
Please, Frank, dont bore us, and please please please, dont try to fool us.

[Isambard Kingdom]

I'm with Sir Jack on this one ...I think if the teams and drivers are looking at budget cuts its time to reign in this Dynamic Duo...
50/50 is too much ...it should be as in the Premier League ...like 95% for the teams who put on the show and 5% for the Ringmaster .
Now come on guys ...youve been pigging it out at the F1 trough for aeons and now the Landlord is calling "TIME! Last Orders ...mines a pint of Highgate Mild , up the Saddlers! :)"

[Keith]

Too right Sir Jackie!

They should of gone 10 years ago.
I can't wait to see the back of them and have ex-racers in charge, not entrepreneur billionaires and lawyers? It stinks!

[Drmaldition]

and Ronnie too

[paul j. weighell]

F1 has the largest global TV audience of any regular and frequent event. It brings serious amounts of hard currency into the UK via motorsport exports. It provides news media with hectares of controverisal content and advertising revenues from stories like this one. Thank you Max, thank you Bernie - keep it profitable and keep it coming.

(If Stewart could do any better then he would already have done so...)

[Cliff Preacher]

Yes Bernie and Max must go! They have turned a sport very close to my heart into a business. Too much regulation. The finances must be more evenly spread out to make it worthwhile to every player including circuit owners drivers and teams. There is only one team solely involved in F1 being Williams. We need more like them.

[Huge Euge]

As Murray Walker has screamed many times, its GO! GO! GO!

[jys talks too much]

paul j weighell

jackie - a great driver in his day and a pioneer of safety in motorsport - was incapable of bringing the brdc into the modern world.

[Érico Calixto]

Yes, they should obviously go. They've taken F1 into a self-destructing path with escalating costs, mismanagement and general widespread incompetence. Max's powertrip and Bernie's gold mining have done more damage than good.

[Sancho Panza]

All right then,let's sack them.
But... who's going to replace them?
Ronaldo, Flavio, Domenico? And who's going to decide which one? And whoever it is, is it going to do better?
Better the devil you know...

[D]

^
Hey Guys: first things first!

We, at least, can get our priorities right, even if those who run Formula One lack any concept of proper behaviour whatsoever.

We should set off on the right foot in 2009 and properly commence our humble contributions to Ed the Magnificent’s blog this year with some civilised courtesy. (Even if it does degenerate into the usual spirited knife-fighting again once the season gets under way in earnest and emotions run high. :-)

So let’s start again…

Hi, Hero! Happy New Year.

Hope you had a really great Christmas and some quality time to chill out after all the astonishing events of last year - at tracks, beside tracks and off track; in courts, covering courts and out of court.

If anyone deserved a thoroughly well-earned winter break from everything to do with Formula One it was you, Big Guy, after having had so much dumped on you to investigate and report on in so many different places - all too often at the same time. You must have been absolutely shattered, shell-shocked and exhausted by season’s end in Interlagos.

For last year truly was an amazing year for Formula One - but for all the wrong reasons; (edit moderator).

To consider, as we are asked to do, whether these two supremely dislikable men are now past not merely their sell-by dates but well past their consign-to-the-trash-immediately dates we need to get right to the bottom of the matter, as one of those two appears to be particularly disposed to doing privately.

Sir Jackie Stewart’s insight is, as usual, like a beacon of pure white light shone into an unlit pig-sty that hasn’t been cleaned for a decade.

The fact of the matter is that the best thing that could have happened, both for Formula One and for everyone who really cares about it, would have been for both of these two tin-pot tyrants to have been cut down by lung cancer ten years ago instead of being allowed to prostitute motor racing’s supreme activity to tobacco companies and flog it around, like an ageing tart, to ever more inappropriate and irrelevant countries in search of an ever bigger bucket of bucks for themselves.

Consider, just for starters, this little coincidence in regard to Abu Dhabi (of all places) getting a Grand Prix this year when superfluous little countries like America, Canada and France are to be deprived of one purely because they won’t pay Bernard Ecclestone as much money as his insatiable personal greed demands.

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/news/165364-0/arab_motorsport_chief_says_i_saved_mosley.html

As for Ecclestone himself, I nearly choked on my coffee when I read the comment earlier in this thread of Al Redman, who opined: “Why should (Formula One) be taken away from the man that (sic) built it?“.

Built Formula One? Bernard Ecclestone? BUILT FORMULA ONE???

Who does Al Redman think built THESE things (and they sure as Hell didn’t build them in Abu Dhabi):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z1MNgzJVlrg&feature=related

Buried in that clip is the minor fact that before Bernard Ecclestone got to emasculate the Nürburgring for the German Grand Prix the full circuit used to attract 300,000 paying spectators. And they saw some amazing racing. Well do I remember the great Denis Jenkinson’s angry retort when Ecclestone started complaining that the Nürburgring was “too long.” “Two long FOR WHAT?” he demanded. Too long for Bernard Ecclestone to make large amounts of television money out of it without incurring a lot of expense.

Could you imagine the sight of watching Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Michael Schumacher or Lewis Hamilton tigering the full Nürburgring in adversity, whatever the dent this had made in Bernard Ecclestone’s wallet?

In the same way that everything that’s wrong with Britain’s economy is squarely the fault of its current sub-Prime Minister - because it was he who let a conspicuously unsustainable situation escalate out of control for a decade - everything that is wrong, seedy and collapsing with Formula One is squarely the fault of Max Mosley and Bernard Ecclestone; the former with his lust for power and the latter with his lust for money.

And in the same way that Britain’s economy (and the £) will continue to slide into oblivion until Gordon Brown is removed from office, Formula One will not recover until Max Mosley and Bernard Ecclestone are removed from office.

We hear much of how great a genius Bernard Ecclestone is. He’s so clever that (notwithstanding the fact that he’d lived in England for nearly seventy years) he thought it would be a good idea to hold the British Grand Prix in April - whereupon Silverstone predictably turned into a mudbath in the rain.

These are two people who run one of the largest international activities in the world but are incapable of producing a schedule for the dates of the next year’s races until a few weeks before the end of the current season. And even when they finally do, it can’t be relied upon with confidence. What a way to conduct a multi-billion pound enterprise.

They have messed so often with the rules, the regulations and the points system of what was once a clear, consistent, sensible format for running a series of motor races (which worked) that it has degenerated into an inconsistent farce with all the rules being made up as they go along and changed from race to race.

So successful have they been in their endeavours that they now can’t fill the grid with cars but instead let irrelevant “celebrities” wander round it conducting interviews with television crews about how many pairs of shoes they have.

Worst of all, the messes that they make of running it are then referred to a self-styled “court” in Paris which assumes the right to stick its nose into matters that are properly the business of police and investigatory forces and then to “fine” .....(edit moderator) people and teams sums of up to $100,000,000 for offences of a moral nature....(edit moderator)

Is it time for the two of them to be removed from office? You bet Mosley’s.....(edit moderator)...it is.

The reason that Britain’s economy is in meltdown, unlike the rest of Europe’s, is because for the last ten years Gordon Brown allowed personal borrowing on credit to balloon to Zeppelin proportions and this, in turn, fuelled an unsustainable property bubble.

The reason that Formula One is in meltdown and can’t fill its grids with racing cars is because Mosley and Ecclestone have done their level best to turn it into money-making television show held in places that have nothing to do with building racing cars but which permit tobacco advertising and are prepared to hold races in the middle of the night.

The collapse of Britain’s economy was not, in itself, caused by a bunch of crooks selling worthless mortgages in America. That was simply the pin that burst a bubble that should never have been allowed by Gordon Brown to grow.

The pins that have burst Max Mosley’s and Bernard Ecclestone’s bubbles are “The News of the World” and the fearless voice of an irritating but extremely intelligent Scottish racing driver and Formula One constructor speaking out alone and stating what others are too frightened and insecure to say.

Mosley and Ecclestone hate Sir Jackie the way that the Emperor hated the child who pointed out - when all around were marvelling at his robes that they couldn’t see - that he wasn’t wearing any clothes at all.

They strive to discredit and dismiss him with uneasy ridicule because he is a threat to them. And a serious threat, at that. Sir Jackie (for no personal gain) exposes them, uncompromisingly, for what they are and how seriously they have failed to do anything except wield power (vindictively and sadistically) and make money for themselves.

Sir Jackie achieved success - remarkable success - both in building cars and in racing them.

Sir Jackie knows, from personal experience, that what Formula One is all about (always has been and always will be) is engineers building cars, wanting to race them against the cars built by other engineers and, to that end, employing the best drivers they can find (and afford) to drive them.

What Formula One isn’t about is trying to make everybody build identical cars and put on a Berlusconi-mentalitied television show about over-hyped, overpaid young men who can steer a car, attract a hig-profile bimbo and produce a sound-byte when called upon to do so, for the benefit of ignorant “sports fans” sitting on a sofa with a case of beer after luncheon on a Sunday.

Because, at the end of the day, if there’s no television show, the engineers will still build and race cars (and we shall still go and watch them and read Ed’s insights about them) - but if you can’t fill a grid with cars, there won’t be anything to make a television show about.

Sir Jackie, in his long and perceptive interviews, and with a little help from “the News of the World” at an opportune moment, has comprehensively exposed the two(edit moderator) of Formula One for precisely what they are. I have just added, here, a few things that he was too reserved to say.

There remains one other point to make, though. When a tyrant gets old and clings to power there is always a temptation by the weak to let age take its natural course and eventually effect its own inevitable solution. The problem with that is how much further damage to others occurs until it does.

And it has to be said that even an honourable man in his seventies is not looking at things from the perspective of leading the way forward for the next twenty years unless he has already lost his marbles.

Both these self-serving (and increasingly erratic) men should have their hands wrested from the levers of their respective power as soon as possible. The process should only be delayed for long enough to ensure that neither of them will be succeeded by faithful acolytes...(edit moderator)
Well, since it has been sought, that’s my view.

It’s great to see Ed’s Blog stir unexpectedly from its well-earned winter slumber, isn’t it?

I had a strange dream last night after discovering, just before going to bed, that it had awoken from hibernation and was foraging for our views. In my dream, Max Rufus Mosley was being held over a haggis by women dressed in German military uniforms and prison camp attire, with his bare buttocks on display. These were being smitten until they bled by one of the prostitutes wielding Bernard Ecclestone by his legs and vast sums of money were falling out of his pockets. Upon that appealing thought I slept extremely well.

Anyway, roll on Melbourne: only a couple of months to go. (Enjoy them, Ed!)

Will Fonzie arrive there dressed in red and Kimi be driving a vodka bottle, instead?

Will Jenson be swapping puke green for yellow, in his place?

I look forward to you telling us all in your own, inimitable, informed, insightful and much-loved way.

See ya then.

Kindest regards to you and all yours for 2009. And the same, of course, to all the usual suspects here.

Douglas.

PS. You forgot to tell us what Sir Jackie served you for luncheon in his conservatory, Ed. Shame on you! But least the grapes won’t have been as sour as they were at the Ritz a couple of years ago.

[Will carter]

After all the argy bargy, I would just like to see real motor racing again, with the lead changing every 2 or 3 laps, instead of just once a race during pitstops.
I don't care who is in charge of what, provided the spectacle is provided by the cars and drivers, not the big chested bimbos in the pits

[brett sinclair]

Oh dear! All those chest thumping male egos in the microcosm of life that is F1.
Who better to steer the ship on a new path than the man whose been doing it so well all these years...

[Soeren Meyer]

The crucial question is not "when do Mosley and Ecclestone retire?", or if they should. They eventually will, but who and what structures should follow them?

[Dieter Boss]

Bernie may have done a good job with F1, but he's taken the bulk of the money.
Fairer distribution of the sports wealth is what is needed. Max is completely out of touch with reality and they should both go before they drive the sport back to the dark days of the past.

[Derek Smith]

Whether the two stay or go might be of little consequence. Mosley's recent letter to FOTA, CC to all team managers, (seehttp://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=36801 for full doc)
states near the end:

"But as already stated, we would be ready to recognise an independant series should some teams prefer to go their own way."

'Some teams' would, presumably, be the manufacturers. Does this mean that FOTA has been discussing more than just the regs? I know, as does anyone I suppose, that the manufacturers are not all that happy with having reduced events in Europe and none - none! Can you believe it? - in north America. So this might be a move away from Bernie's control. And the word 'recognise' would exclude making and enforcing the regs.

I could be reading too much into a throwaway line but the whole tone of the letter is not that of someone in complete control of the situation.

So rather than outing the pair it seems a side-step is more likely.

Having the manufacturers in complete control of a major series is not likely to benefit F1 any more than it has benefitted from having Mosley able to run roughshod over the teams' needs.

[Alan Williamson]

Time for the Artful Dodger and Fagin to leave a sport that they have turned into a personal cash cow. Race meetings are now run for t.v. to the exclusion of the true spectator. For example the only way to get into the paddock at a G.P. is to be a sponsor or a minor royal. I was shocked to hear Sir Jackie's comments that no money went back to the circuits, if this is the case is Donington Park hell bent on going bust?

[Ben]

Yes.

[Richard O'Driscoll]

Bernie has done well for himself and other financially but the teams, who bear the brunt of the costs, are without exception unprofitable. He needs to pay them more or accept the inevitable.
Max outside of the FIA is a persona non grata and having got away with his private antics once would be foolish to tempt fate.
Jacke was in charge of the BRDC which led to Silverstone losing the GP neither was he sucessful as a team owner.

[LLoyd]

This is not Sir Jacks idea, this was floated by 3 team bosses 8 months ago. So he should not stand up and take the credit. F1 does not need Mosley, Stewart, Denis, poor venues in the UK, France, Canada and the USA. The has beens of F1 should all go and go now but replacing them with ex drivers who have no interest in developing the sport is as bad as keeping the old in place. FIA needs a top business person who can bring some sense to it. Bernie is a bit of a strange one, there is no doubt he has rocketed F1 to magnificent heights however what now, agree with Mosley just to get more races I would say he has lost the plot and no longer has F1 as his main interest mainly because besides wanting more venues he has no idea what to do next. My suggestion would be replace him with Michael Schumacher and bring in Prost, Hill and Colthart as well. Allow the cars to develop how they will and if the weak fall so be it.

[Jaxs]

Does anyone truly believe that only Bernie and Spanky can run F1, There are lots of people with the business acumen, the vision and the time to take F1 to its next stage of being a global sport. The tobacco barons need the far east but does F1 need them? The essential GP's, Canada, US, France & Germany can not be ignored on the promise of an alternative. The size of markets and the potential must not be ignored for the small and isolated.

Nernie and Spanky need to go, and as soon as possible.

[Les]

Jackie is right it is time for those two to say goodbye. There are people out there who can do a far better job

[Derek Smith]

Stefano Domenicali took the opportunity of the launch of their 2009 car to have a go at Mosley, saying that MM's pet project, the KERS system, is too expensive at a time when the sport is supposedly trying for cost reduction.

Whilst, like the extra payments to Ferrari, everyone was aware of this, for Steve Sunday to mention it at such a press-intense time is pertinent.

First Luca, then Jackie and now Steve: it is almsot as if every F1 enthusiast wants the terrible twins out.

Whilst some have suggested on here that JS is yesterday's man (jeez! no sense of earning one's place. Mosley reckons he's made F1 safe and then calls Stewart names despite the Scot being the one who really did it) you've got to say that Luca and Steve have done a bit recently.

[ROBERT HIGGINBOTHAM]

Max is now talking about only permitting mechanical storage for KERS. Money down the drain for a number of teams if that is the case.

Both Max and Jackie have improved the safety of the sport. Both of them could benefit from zipping it from time to time.

[Peter Chappell]

Its a shame that we still have bickering from such luminaries. All 3 men have embraced and done much for the sport all ironically in the same areas of team ownership, safety improvements and promotion. Many times Mr Ecclestone had offered deals for discussion, however running a team and organising the series are too large a task, similarly all motorsport is governed by the FIA any one involved with Formula One in the early 80s' all agreed that the helm of the FIA should be run by by someone from inside Formula One, Mr Mosley being the adopted choice of all. Jackie is and always will be our hero without whom all motoring sport or otherwise would be much less safer than now, to coin a phrase what the world needs now, is stability just to survive the economic climate, change overtime as all three have shown is more robust, far reaching and longer lasting.

[Derek Smith]

Peter Chappell,

The removal of Balestre and his replacement by Mosley was not, I would suggest, the 'choice of all'. There's an excellent article on pitpass.com explaining the ins and outs. It's very much like reading the political side of the so-called vote of confidence on Mosley's tenure as president.

Out of the three luminaries there is only one that I believe has the interests of the sport as his sole motivation for the comments.

The FiA does not govern all motor sport. Indeed, the big risk of Mosley's handling of such things as the Indy FiAsco and the Stepneygate debacle is that it will encourage the manufacturers to set up a rival series to F1 out of the control of the FiA. Indeed, Mosely has recently said that if the manufacturers decide to do so the FiA will, if required, 'recognise' the series.

But a series controlled and run by the teams is as much a risk to the sport as one where, as seems likely if Mosley does manage to rid the sport of the manufacturers, the FiA is dominant. A manufacuturers' series would take money, sponsors and drivers from F1 and leave F1 as a backwater.

[marken23]

Come on..... These two old fat cats should just go (actually the time is well past). Just the idea that this point is debatable on this blog means how deep the poisonous roots of this "couple" go in motor sport/show.

[Dean Ingham]

Get rid of them!! Their self-interest has wrecked F1. What is needed is someone like Steve Jobs in F1 who is really interested in the product and the public who buy it. Some new blood - please!!!

[Derek Smith]

JYS gives a reasoned argument for moving on from the years of Mosley and Eccs. Bernies, on the other hand suggests that a person 9 years his junior is going senile.

More evidence surely that Eccs should go.

Sucking up to Ferrari. All very political.

[Damon - Birmingham]

They should both go - sadly though we're losing Ron Dennis (albeit I'm glad to see he's going out on a high). Ron you will be sadly missed in F1.

[JYS TALKS TOO MUCH]

derek smith

one person is a shrewd businessman, the other talks and talks and talks.

[Derek Smith]

I'm with Damon of Birmingham. We lose the baby and keep the bathwater.

Ron is one of the heros of F1. He's dedicated his adult life to the sport from mechanic to the absolute pinnacle of team principal.

F1 will, of course, go on, but it will be the lesser for his leaving.

What can you say about a bloke who took McLaren from something of a joke to the epitome of professionalism? 'The Business of Winning' used to be their motto and it sort of sums McLaren up.

Although it is not what one might call unexpected it's still quite a shock.

F1 will be different in 2009 but less from the changes to the regs and more to the big gap he's left in the pitlane.

I know he won't read this but I feel I have to say: All the best, Ron, for whatever direction your life now takes.

[Colin brown]

Come on, Ecclestone is so in love with crooning royalty and those of the rich league it is becoming sickening to see him on the grid where he swoons around like a God that you have to be totally subserviant too.

I am not saying he hasn't done a lot for the sport in the past years but I personally think he has lost sight of the real track.

Like Alex Ferguson he should graciously retire and play with his gold scalextric in the shed.

[robert higginbotham]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/996114fc-e665-11dd-8e4f-0000779fd2ac.html

[Walt Stannard]

My first time at an F1 race was in 1970. From 1985 through 1990, I was in the management of an F1 team. I remember F1 before Bernie. There are three reasons, for me, that neither Bernie nor Max should go. If it ain't broke don't fix it, and I don't believe F1 is broke. There is not anybody of whom I'm aware who could do their jobs better than Bernie and Max. Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

[Meg Hunter]

I'd like to collect and publish many of the comments by dedicated, longtime, worldwide racing fans such as myself (..been going or viewing since Brands Hatch 1958). The past two seasons of F1 have seen some great action compared to past seasons. I live in Maine and hope BBC America will broadcast races more than once when they occur in other time zones. Bernie should concentrate on his upcoming divorce, and both he and Mosley should back off and allow others to come in as suggested: Coulthard, Sir Jack, MOSS, etc. I can't afford to attend F1 any more so am pinning my hopes on great BBC coverage instead.

[Derek Smith]

To Walt Stannard:

I would suggest that F1 is very broke. I've been a GP since 1966 and I would suggest that professionalism was brought into the sport by the likes of Williams/Head and Ron Dennis. And Ecclestone when he ran Brabham.

I think Mosely did an adequate job up to about 2002 when he started to throw his weight around. It seemed to start when he lost that vote on karting and resigned. Then forgot that he'd done so. Since then we've had one FiAsco after another: the de facto one car Indy race, Stepneygate, Mosleygate, concord agreements being ignored, costs being put up and some very dubious decisions on track. Not to mention the unequal distribution of funds.

And as for Eccs, the devil we know has stopped F1 in north America - how on earth can that not be broke? - and we look like losing France, Britain and Germany from the list. And what do we get in return? The bussing in of the of the bewildered to not even fill the empty stands in countries with no history nor interest in the sport. I call that boke.

How much more broke do you want it? How about the vast majority of income from the sport being taken from it?

Face it, that is broke.

Eccs did a brilliant job for the sport when he ran Brabham. The cars always looked good - compare those 2009 cars we've seen - and ran well. 1500bhp form 1500cc in qually form was a spectacle. But that was ages ago.

It's the racing that's important and you get that without billboards. Bussing in spectators, I ask you.

The FiA should be the referee. The best referee is the one you don't notice. Mosley is all pervading. He's like a referee blowing his whistle all the time. He should let the game go on and step in only when absolutely necessary.

Kers is a case in point: senseless expense for no benefit. He must realise that it's not his sport, it's ours.

[bbei]

F1 has been mutilated ever since Mosley became president. F1 has never been F1 since 1991, when all races contributed to the standings, instead of the 11 best resuls out of 16.

Smaller cars, grooved tyres, one tyre for race and qualifying, smaller engine capacity after downforce limiting measures... the list goes on and on with failure. Lack of overtaking is a direct consequence of the ludicrous measures FIA took in the past.

The last couple of changes with regard to the wings are finally a change for the better, as now F1 tends to go back to F1 from the '80's.

If the FIA wants cost reduction and a better show, then there are other cheaper means available that do not take away the spirit of racing.

An energy limit is one of those.

[Rob Williams]

I think that these 2 guys should make way for someone with fresh ideas. All they seem to do these days is make creat bad press.Put Ron Dennis in charge, now that would be a better deal for everyone...

[Bill Hawthorne]

I to agree with Jackie Stuart they should go, they have too much power,
Over the years Motorcycling has had the similar problems although on a smaller scale.
We lost the opportunity last year to get rid of 50% of the problem Mosely,and didn't take it.

Bill Hawthorne

Middlesbrough