Formula 1 = Formula Money

As f1 sinks into the toilet, liberty tighten their hand on the flush....... way to destroy a sport eh?

 

A lot of people watch to see Ferrari (some to see Ferrari win,… others to see Ferrari beaten),… not many watching just for Haas.

That said,.. only paying the top ten is silly… that will guarantee you only have ten teams at best in the long term. You don't want a situation where a team can just show up,… spend $40M and collect $50M… but we are not even close to that.

Prize money distribution should be addressed.

 

I wonder how much Bernie Ecclestone skimmed off the top over the years?

 

Does it matter? None of us are communists are we? It's expected that to be at the top of a sport, running the business, people will earn a substantial sum, as without Bernie, f1 would've either finished a long time ago, or stayed as the small sport it actually was. He made it a multi million dollar sport, so deserves the spoils as much as anyone. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but we have to appreciate what formula one became with him

Seeing libertys ideas of cost caps and equalisation, I'd put money on f1 being far less in the future than it became under Bernie.

 

Well, it does matter to me.

Bernie made modern F1 what it is, for good but also for bad. Bigger doesn't mean better. He made races where nobody cares about just to grab the promoters money, got the commercial rights from FIA for peanuts thanks to his buddy Max Mosley and always played a tactic of divide and conquer with the teams. Let's not forget also his entanglements with German and British law.

F1 owes a lot to Bernie? Well, the opposite is also correct: Bernie got very rich while others spent the millions needed to build the cars and the tracks.

So one could argue that the big portion of the pie that Bernie was getting was not fully deserved.

 

The money wouldn’t have been there but for Bernie, they had a 100% of nothing, or a smaller percentage of a massive pie. I’d say the teams did well. Why shouldn’t the guy at the top make the most? I make more than any employees of mine by about 10,000% - should I be worried?


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Formula 1 teams existed before Bernie. They didn´t have so much money to spend then... but they didn´t need it either: racing was cheaper. As I´ve said, bigger doesn´t mean better. Now, even the big corporations can´t afford to do Formula 1 and Le Mans at the same time.

You own your company. You´ve created it with your money and are an important part of it. I suppose that you´ve made your business within the law and that you haven´t been prosecuted in Germany. If you´re earning too much and your employees too little, it´s up to your employees and their Unions to deal with that. Bernie didn´t own Formula 1. He got the commercial rights in a not very clear neither ethical way. He actually was not a part of the show: the teams were. He was the promoter. There are not many sports where the promoter earns more than the sportsmen. Do you have any employee that earns 50% of your profits?

Anyway, if Bernie managed to get things done his way, it was not his fault but of all those that agreed to play his game: the teams, the track owners and the FIA.

 

I would suggest people read: "No Angel: The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone" to get a better idea of how Bernie came to rule the roost in F1, and to understand where F1 was before he took control, and how he made it a global sport that generates Millions for those involved.

Without Bernie's World wide promotion of the sport, the top drivers wouldn't earn anything like as much as they do, because the money simply wouldn't be in the sport!

Don't believe Me? - You look back to drivers such as Hawthorn, Moss, Fangio, Ascari, Surtees, Hunt, Villeneuve, and show how many Millions they got paid to race in F1. In comparison to the likes of Senna, Schumacher, Vettel and Hamilton, they got paid a pittance!

Prior to Bernie taking over, F1/Grand Prix racing was just bumbling along like a rudderless ship, with no real future plan of where it wanted to be. It was an: "Old Boy's racing club!". Bernie gave the sport some proper focus and direction, and brought the sport to the masses.

Added to that, try doing a little bit of in-depth research about Bernie Eccelstone and find out about how much assistance he gave to small teams in financial trouble, by giving them interest free - "pay Me back when you can" loans to help them out (Eddie Jordan has often said that his Jordan team would have folded on a number of occasions if it were not for Bernie lending the team money, and has stated that Jordan were not the only team to be helped in that way).

Find out about the help Bernie gave to improve the medical and safety standards in F1, and the help he gave to injured drivers and their families (Not so easy because he always asked for it to be kept secret as he didn't want people thinking he was a softie at heart, but the stories are out there).

It's all too easy to criticise Bernie for the money he made out of F1, but he was only able to make that money out of F1 because he helped put that money, and more, into F1!

Bernie Eccelstone was a devious little s:censored:t (and still is!), with a secret heart of gold for those he liked, who absolutely loved F1, and helped make it one of the biggest sports on the planet!

As for:

Well that should tell you instantly what a God-damned business genius Bernie Ecclestone was then! The real owners of F1: The FIA, simply failed to see the potential of their own sport and so gave Bernie the promotion rights because they thought the rights were next to worthless! Bernie dedicated his entire life to making sure that actually, the rights to F1 were anything but worthless!

 

Is that a good thing? I´d say that modern drivers are overpaid. They don´t risk their lives like in the past. They´re often more valued for their promotional image.

The other side of the coin is that if Bernie hadn´t keep 50% of the profits for himself and he hadn´t "bribed" the big teams to make a money distribution that benefits those big teams, the small teams probably wouldn´t need Bernie´s charity.

Well, one could argue that, as Bernie´s old pal Max Mosley was in charge of the FIA, and that Bernie had helped Max to become FIA president, it´s not that FIA "thought that F1 rights were worthless" but that there could be a "conflict of interests".

Just some final thoughts: Bernie did many, many things right, and honestly, these guys of Liberty are starting to make me miss him, but as often happens when someone has absolute power for too long, he corrupted the sport (with the help of the big teams, of course). Fly too close to the sun and you´d get burnt.

 

Every team in f1 now and past knew what they were getting into, no one forces anyone to enter formula one, no one drags these people into trying their hand. Is it really bernies fault that they went bust, failed, didn't make the grade? No, just like every business has to change and adapt to its business environments, so race teams in formula one either change to suit the needs of their participation, or they don't. If they enter with too little money, why is it expected ferrari or any other team that is successful make allowances, and give up their spoils just to help..... again, we are not working within a socialist or communist environment, f1 is a capitalist driven business.

The FIA force far more expense on teams with their ridiculous engines and technology requirements than any promoter has, engines could be so much cheaper if the format were NA V8's, or even V6's, but no, we have to have dopey KERS and the rest, that add millions to development costs. Then, to add insult to injury, they then freeze the developments, so once you are behind, where are you?, still behind forever, thats where, and losing sponsors. Look at mclaren, they must've lost millions due to the debacle over the engines with Honda. Honda themselves must be kicking themselves for even bothering. If development were allowed, and the tech more simple, don't you think Honda would be able to build a decent engine?

 

This is not accurate. Bernie got the commercial rights from F-1 teams, fair and square. Back in the 60's F-1 ran like this:

each team negotiated appearance money with individual race organizers. the CSI ( FIA - through FISA ) provided the sanctioning and provided some race stewards that looked after the application of the rules. in the mid 70's the FIA started to team up with race track owners and promoters to combat the raising cost of staging a GP...mostly to fight back the drivers call for more safety. As sponsorship became more and more normal - thanks to Colin Chapman, - the tracks were getting more advertising revenue and keeping more for them vs. puttingg it into the infrastructure. FOCA was born ( Formula One Constructors Association) this was largely British teams Lotus, Tyrrell, BRM, March, Brabbham, etc... ) Ferrari was not a part of the FOCA teams but attended meetings. FOCA was initially run by Chapman then Bernie Ecclestone took over as owner of Brabbham F-1 team. in 1976 Bernie worked with the FIA to make a deal where the FIA could bargan with Race promoters for higher fees, if all teams committed to showing up for a race. so that "Concorde" deal was done, and part of that was that Bernie carved out the rights for TV coverage and promotion. He then went back to FOCA teams and offered each a share for $100,000. all of which turned it down. so Bernie's $1M paid to the FIA was legit and legal. he then started to get the Gp's shown on TV - which raised sponsorship opportunity, which drove up the cost of F-1 for TV etc... but that is how it got started. the FOCA -FISA wars of the 80's was for control of the earning potential of F-1 - FOCA won... when Jean Marie Balestre lost to Max Mosley - that was the final nail in the coffin for F-1 in terms of money. Bernie then had control of everything as Max had been one of his laywers from the beginning as well as a constructor who got rich from Bernie.

Modern F-1 is all because of Bernie Ecclestone the good and the bad. its pretty clear that if it was not for him, F-1 most likely would not have survived on its own out of the 80's. some form of racing would be here, but not sure what.

 

Its a good read, but not 100% accurate.. but it tells the story well.

 

What you said is true... but later Bernie got a renewal of the TV rights for a ridiculous ammount of time (I think it was 100 years, did Bernie pretend to live for so long or what?) and thanks to his pal Max, at a bargain price.

Yes, Bernie built modern Formula 1 from the ground in the 70s... but in his latest years he looked more worried about milking the cow than in the survival of his creation. Personally, I think that F1 would exist anyway without Bernie. It would be different, I don´t know if better or worse.

 

Oh Clearly Bernie & Max made off with the chicken coop... I agree 100% he went way too far. However he did that by making almost everyone in F-1 RICH... and some Super Rich. That is how you get agreement from everyone - Bernie gave a lot of people a golden goose that has kept laying gold eggs... I think he truly likes the "deal" part but also started to believe his own press... which is never good. If you go to an F-1 race, as a fan its ok, but if you go in the Paddock club its Great.. and if you get into the Paddock with your own FIA pass - and do teams / Sponsor hospitality - that is how the super rich live. its a private uber wealthy boys club, and everyone is keeping up with the jones... its that tension that has driven F-1 in the money crisis it has today. everyone wants money out - but not putting anything back in....