Bernie used legal tax loophole to avoid paying certain taxes. Entire legal. Even paid 10m which HMRC agreed to. HMRC should have studied their case a bit better if they now think the deal was invalid.
+1 Love him or hate him, he's one of the few British gazillionaires that hasn't solved the problem by quitting the country entirely. I'd more than chuckle if he does successfully sue them. Cheers, Ian
+1 Yup what Bas says. +1 Ditto Heehee, Ian is me bezzie mate... <(pigeon English)or(flying rat)< (Ask Aircon for further translations)
I owed a billion in back taxes a few years ago, but I agreed to a settlement. He will probably do the same. Ahh, who am I kidding? He will bribe whoever needs to be bribed....
I *WISH* There is no bribing HMRC BTW..... He may wind up paying some, but a *billion*? No way. His tax guys will take care of it - They're paid a *lot* more than the the civil servants that make up Her Majesty's tax service. Cheers, Ian
Bernie doesn't need it, but I think he gets kicks running the business. He is one of these people who just can't stop.
That *may* be true. However, I'm more concerned about what's going to happen when he does, eventually, go. He's been running it, pretty much singlehandedly, for so long now who's going to take over the controls? A corporate suit? An F1 guy? I still don't think F1's current "malaise" can be laid squarely at his feet. I would really like him (or anyone!) to get it out from under the leaches that are CVC - The ~40% that they bleed straight off the top really should be coming back to the teams and/or the promoters in one way or another. That would be a start. Cheers, Ian
The FIA should fight to regain F1 commercial rights, or renegociate them. The initial arrangement between Mosly and Ecclestone is at the root of all the problems.
You *may* be right..... However, is there anyone at the FIA who has anywhere close to the commerical nous of Bernie? Would they do a "better" job of running the commercial side? At the end of the day, little Napoleons empire is a sanctioning body, nothing more nor less. IMO, sanctioning bodies should, well, sanction, not run the commercial side. The devil you know is (generally ) better than the one you don't...... Cheers, Ian
FIA may be only a sanctioning body, but they could surely find another organisation to look after the commercial side. All this could come about after Bernie and Todt.
"Après moi, le deluge"? No man is indispensable. The sport needs a realignment and he's not the man for that job. Bernie did what the teams wanted him to do which was to make them money. Now that the golden goose is on life support another approach is needed. If the teams and the FIA had thought about sustainability the sport wouldn't be in the peril that its in. I don't blame Bernie for doing his job but those who should have kept perspective.
ONLY a sanctioning body? You say that as if its only role was to schedule races and provided stewards. A sanctioning body has a fiduciary role to look after the health of the sport beyond the interests of any party or parties. Max and Jean both failed there.
Don't need much really. A Zonda as a promotional vehicle, apartment with a garage space. I'll sort the sport out no probs.
Ideas are floating around all ready: Improving the show: -Less aero (less complicated and smaller front wing, rear wing with limited angle) -wider wheels -less computery bits, such as the differential which will be purely mechanical -N/A engines, steering towards a direct injection 2.5 V10 with ERS, 20000RPM Fairness: -Making the sport more attractive to privateers. It can't survive on manufacturers alone. Starting off with a better distribution of F1 monies: Top team gets the most, but gets a small amount of allowed testing mileage. Trickles down to the smallest team getting the least money, but most allowed testing mileage. They are allowed to sell blocks of their testing mileage to other teams, to be used at any time. -A guaranteed seat to the winner of GP2. Poor teams already sell of their seats (even some rich ones). If the winner finds a seat already, no problem. The team offering the seat gets subsidized of course.
