Bernie Ecclestone has hit back with fury at a letter demanding talks with F1’s small teams in Abu Dhabi this weekend.<\/p>\n
Since backmarkers Caterham and Marussia hit their troubles, the sport’s next-smallest teams Lotus, Force India and Sauber have been bemoaning the inequality of power and income, and even threatening to boycott races.<\/p>\n
In a letter this week signed by the three teams, Force India deputy boss Bob Fernley even hinted legal action might be ahead, describing the income distribution model and rule-making Strategy Group as akin to a “cartel”.<\/p>\n
“I hope he understands what the definition is of a cartel, and if he does, how he could believe there is a cartel,” F1 chief executive Ecclestone has now responded, according to PA Sport.<\/p>\n
“He (Fernley) is talking complete and utter rubbish,” he added.\u00a0 “This is the problem we get into in meeting with these team principals, or managers — they don’t know what they’re talking about.”<\/p>\n
However, it is believed Ecclestone will sit down with the bosses in Abu Dhabi, despite calling the talks in Brazil recently a “complete and utter waste of time”.<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old F1 supremo played down the likelihood the new talks will satisfy the angry teams.<\/p>\n
“They have a contract they signed.\u00a0 They know exactly what they signed and how much money they would be getting,” said Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
“What we don’t have any control over is how much they want to spend.\u00a0 That’s the problem.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t seem like they’ve followed a normal business route.”<\/p>\n
In the same interview, however, Ecclestone said he feels sympathy for the teams whose customer engine bills have risen dramatically due to the switch from V8 to V6 engines this year.<\/p>\n
Eddie Jordan, a former team owner and boss and now a pundit for British television, says the situation indicates Ecclestone should consider stepping down.<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail said Jordan was particularly alarmed by Ecclestone saying F1 doesn’t need the younger generation because 70-year-olds have more money.<\/p>\n
“It is out of control,” he said.\u00a0 “Nobody knows whether he means what he says or even knows what he is saying.<\/p>\n
“We are only custodians of the sport.\u00a0 We have a responsibility to the next generation to hand it over in a fit, healthy and competitive state,” Jordan added.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bernie Ecclestone has hit back with fury at a letter demanding talks with F1’s small teams in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Since backmarkers Caterham and Marussia hit their troubles, the sport’s next-smallest teams Lotus, Force India and Sauber have been bemoaning the inequality of power and income, and even threatening to boycott races. In a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,3171,451,5262,576,5340,306,114],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25721,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25720\/revisions\/25721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}