Luca di Montezemolo: Bernie has to retire from F1 if indicted in the banking scandal

he would enjoy it
Pete

 

The end of a dictatorship sounds like a good thing for F1 imho...

 

Latest from Pitpass.

http://pitpass.com/48183-Ecclestone-says-he-is-staying-in-F1s-driving-seat

 

Thanks.

 

+1

Even though proof reading seems beyond them too - Did we *really* need to be told the exact same thing three times in three consecutive sentences?........

As I've said before, if they're coming after him - and the big delay seems ominous - they're either getting their ducks in line or don't have the evidence - They better be *very* careful.

I'm sure Florian has his ear to the ground on this one. Is it just this Klaus Ott guy who's got the hots for him? Or are there others jumping on the bandwagon?

Cheers,
Ian

 

We won't know what's up until it has happened.
There are reputations (mostly out if F1) to be enhanced by standing up to Bernie in the press whether or not the prospects of success are real or imaginary.

 

Latest from Autosport - The complete story is Bernie confirming he & LdM "remain friends"....

Confidence before the fall maybe?......

Cheers,
Ian
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104980

 

Luca also stated recently that he's given up any political aspirations.

Aren't New Year's resolutions wonderful?

 

Careful Ian! - don't blow your Autosport allowance too soon!

(BTW, I've taken to looking at the Autosport headline page and if there's a story that looks like it might be interesting but not highly important, then I wait a day and have a look on the ESPN F1 site - they tend to report the same story the next day, often quoting the Autosport article!).



The thing with Bernie is, he can afford to hire the best lawyers in the land, and there's the added complication of the immunity deal he struck with the prosecution. This could possibly limit the scope of any possible prosecution.

Something else that needs to be considered is the possible damage to the German GP if there is a prosecution and Bernie wins. He'll have no qualms about pulling the German GP off the calender and will do his best to ensure it never returns.

Hockenheim has a contract until 2018 but that is linked with a deal to alternate with the Nurburgring to help manage the costs.

However, the Nurburgring has hit financial problems, putting it's future as an F1 venue in doubt, and Hockenheim could struggle to hold the German GP on it's own, so they are vulnerable to to possible retribution from Bernie, and it wouldn't take much convincing from him to highlight the disadvantages of continuing to race in Germany compared to the advantages of racing somewhere new.

 

Indeed! I've already received my first "warning" this month.

Good thinking! The BBC site is another that often "duplicates" any Autosport releases. Then there's the dreaded PF1 who will attempt to re-write it, **** it up, and claim it as their own!

Oh yeah - I'd forgotten that little tid-bit.....

Not so sure on that; We know he goes where the money is, and I really don't have a problem with that - It's his show after all. However, I don't think ha has the nasty, vindictive streak of, say, Mad Max.

Should he get found guilty (doubtful IMO) he'll probably get fined (big deal ) and laugh about it - He does still want the "classic" locations after all, he just wants 'em to pay the going rate, or at least close to it.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I'm not sure Gerhard Gribkowsky would agree!

Underneath that loveable exterior, Bernie is a hard man!

Seeing how he used Donnington to get what he wanted from Silverstone demonstrates this perfectly!

(And I honestly don't believe he ever had any intention of running the British GP at Donnington!, they were used purely for the extra leverage he needed).

Just look at the aftermath of all of that: Bernie got what he wanted from Silverstone: Big improvements to the circuit and facilities, whilst Donnington was left as a dug-up, unusable wasteland!

was there any sentimentality from Bernie over the fate that F1 had inflicted on Donnington?

Did Bernie, with all his wealth and wealthy connections, offer any assistance to Donnington to help keep a much loved track operating?

Did he feel even the slightest bit responsible for Donnington's fate?

The answer to all of it is No! - He felt no empathy for Donnington and he didn't lift a finger to help restore it to a usable condition.
As far as Bernie was concerned when it came to Donnington it was: Tough s:censored:t! - Not my problem!

This shows that there is little sentimentality involved with Bernie when it comes to circuits.

As for him being vindictive? - We've never had a situation where an national authority has threatened him to this degree.

My personal feeling is along the lines of the old saying: "You mess with the bull - you get the horns!"

There could be a big price to pay for all of this - Time will tell!

 

Indeed.

The whole Donnington thing was apparent to everyone save Donnington from the get go.

At some point the lamb has to take a bit of responsibility too.

 

I don't think it was necessarily Donnington themselves TBH, I think it was the opportunists who were leading the lamb to the slaughter who were more to blame, they did a runner and left donnington in the lurch!

However, Bernie could have done a lot more to help rectify the disaster that befell Donnington after everything fell apart, but he just didn't care!

 

In any case it was a damn shame.

The Donnington of Nuvolari and Wheatcroft deserved better.

 

Too true!

It managed to survive -that's the main thing!

Seems Chris Evans bought the famous Dunlop bridge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19621449

(I wonder what Bernie bought to help the circuit out? )

 

Yeah. He outbid me.

Just as well. I've bought too many bridges in my day.

 

I believe we have footage of your reaction from your first bridge purchase:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAIbgP78Xg[/ame]

 

The force wasn't with me that day fersure.

 

As I've said many times, wouldn't motorsport the world over be in a far better place if Bernie actually worked to improve it instead of just lining his own pockets.

He should fund:
1. Track improvements, not the other way around.
2. Young driver programs (note how there is a lack of real talent coming through now. Surtees is even trying to get things moving here and reduce the need for young drivers to be financially loaded first and foremost)
3. And many other things that I said in my other post on how to improve F1.

All of you that think F1 is better off because of Bernie are simply ignoring where it could actually have been if an enthusiast had been running the show for as long as Bernie has been involved. Just think of the different path we could have travelled where that person actually put money back INTO the sport.

TV, etc. would have come and improved without Bernie ... Bernie had nothing to do with Bathurst and that is the first race in the WORLD to have in car TV footage. So please if I read another ill informed post about how Bernie saved F1 and bought TV to it, etc. I'll vomit. He helped but it was just a timing issue.

Bernie has made himself rich and many involved in F1 by acknowledging what they had, but he has not put a single cent back into it UNLESS he made $100s from that cent. Thus he has never had the future of motorsport first and foremost in his strategy ... just his profits. They are NOT the same thing.

F1 should not make a profit. Just pay the costs and distribute ALL the profits back into world motorsport, including paying the hosts (yes F1 should pay the hosts not take a fee from them. Many more people would be motorsport fans if they did this as the money would be used to improve cities and areas where the races are run). If that had happened for the last 30 years we would ALL be in a much better place as motorsport enthusiasts.
Pete

 

Whilst I'll criticise Bernie about the whole Donnington affair, and agree that there are plenty of things that he could have done better, it would be incorrect and irresponsible to completely ignore the good that he has done for the sport over the years.

He played a major part in improving the medical standards at circuits around the World, personally ensuring that Professor Sid Watkins was brought into the sport and backing him without question against some incredible (and at times, unbelievable), resistance. (Have a read of Sid Watkins' book if you don't believe Me!).

He unified the teams and got them more power within their own sport, thus enabling them to have more of a say as to how the sport was run.

He got the teams a much better financial deal from the FIA than they were ever likely to get on their own.

He made F1 the popular global sport that it is today, by bringing it to the masses.

And to be fair to Bernie, there's an awful lot of decent things that he has done at a personal level, for drivers, families of drivers, teams etc., etc., that we never hear about because he doesn't want the World to see his softer side.
(Again, various books on the subject of F1 will confirm this side to Bernie that we never publicly see).

Yes he's got rich from F1, but why shouldn't he?, he put a lot of hard work into building it up into what it is today. He faced numerous battles with circuit owners, team owners, the FIA, banks, hospitals, local authorities, TV companies, etc., etc., to create the sport we see today.
He's entitled to make money off his ventures, as is the same for any other entrepreneur.

Don't get Me wrong, there are plenty of things that Bernie has done (or not done!), that have irritated Me greatly, but, without Bernie, would F1 be as big as it is today? - I highly doubt it!

 

Agree.

All about the money he was going to make.

Complete and utterly do not agree. Advances is television technology did this not Bernie. If Bernie had never existed F1 would still have made it to TV like it does today. What Bernie did though was make F1 EXCLUSIVE and thus none of us can walk around the pits anymore ... thanks Bernie, not.

Agree.

There is making money, and then there is raping the hand that feeds you. Bernie is definitely the later. Those numerous battles with circuit owners in particular was because he was destroying them financially ... totally against improving the sport.

Ridiculous comment. Neither of us can answer this as we simply don't know. There is very likely somebody out there with 99% of the skills of Bernie but who actually does not want to rape the sport that would have positioned it far better nowadays than he did ... but we cannot go back in time.

The sun does not shine out of ANYBODIES @rse, including Bernie .
Pete

 

There are several Victoria Secret models that make me question this statement.