Bernie Ecclestone on Thursday joined forces with F1 drivers who are complaining about the governance of the sport.<\/p>\n
Sections of the media had interpreted the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association’s rare letter this week as a scathing attack on authorities including the F1 supremo.<\/p>\n
But in a typed reply to the drivers on Thursday, the 85-year-old told them: “It is not always easy to agree with you but you are correct in stating that the decision-making process in the sport is obsolete and ill-structured.”<\/p>\n
Actually, Ecclestone’s own criticism of the current structure is not new, as he often hits out at FIA president Jean Todt’s hands-off approach whilst ruing the days when he and Max Mosley ran F1 in a less democratic fashion.<\/p>\n
“We must as you have stated urge the owners and all stakeholders of formula one to consider restructuring its own governance,” the Briton continued to tell the drivers.<\/p>\n
“You state that every individual acts with the very best intentions.\u00a0 I am not sure if this is a misprint.\u00a0 If not, it should read ‘with their very best intentions’,” Ecclestone concluded.<\/p>\n
The latter is almost certainly a reference to F1’s team bosses, who can rarely agree on issues and rule-changes as they are competing against one another.<\/p>\n
But Ecclestone has even said Mercedes and Ferrari are abusing their position of dominance by effectively running a “cartel”.<\/p>\n
In Melbourne, Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene dismissed the accusation as “simply ridiculous”.<\/p>\n
His Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff agreed: “Bernie is always good for controversy and throwing one in.<\/p>\n
“Some of us are part of multinational global companies and we’re taking compliance very seriously.\u00a0 So it just causes headlines but nothing else,” he added.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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