Flavio Briatore thinks Bernie Ecclestone’s days in charge of F1 are numbered.<\/p>\n
Embroiled in a bribery scandal and criminal trial, the sport’s ‘supremo’ on Friday stunned the paddock when he said that if F1 owner CVC finds a successor for him, “I will leave tomorrow”.<\/p>\n
Italian Briatore, a former title-winning F1 team boss and friend of Ecclestone’s, has been linked with the job but in Monaco – where his luxury boat ‘Force Blue’ is moored this weekend – he ruled that out.<\/p>\n
But he did admit to Italy’s Sky that he thinks Ecclestone’s days are numbered.<\/p>\n
“There is an objective reality,” the Italian said, “and that is the fact that Bernie is 83.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry he is now in this litigation, which may be perceived quite differently if he was 20 or 30.<\/p>\n
“I feel sorry for him, but if I was Ecclestone, I would have left five or six years ago,” Briatore added.<\/p>\n
Indeed, he thinks F1 in general made a very wrong turn some years ago.<\/p>\n
“This is not the F1 I am used to,” Briatore admitted on Friday.\u00a0 “It’s like enjoying spaghetti but then getting sick because you’re forced to eat caviar.<\/p>\n
“In my day the races were gladiator fights, but now it’s like accountants — saving petrol, saving tyres, try not to be penalised … buttons on the steering wheel like an accordion.<\/p>\n
“We had overtakings like Senna and Prost, Villeneuve and Pironi, now it’s all pretend.\u00a0 The teams spend 350 million euros per year and someone is just as fast in GP2.<\/p>\n
“It’s normal that the audience turns away,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have taken away the noise and now these trumpets?\u00a0 It’s like a carnival.”<\/p>\n
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