Bernie Ecclestone’s iron grip on Formula One may be loosening | Richard Williams
Motor racing’s ringmaster now faces civil actions and criminal charges but if he goes, do we want a sport run by bureaucrats?
Just 24 hours before this week’s announcement that he would be facing trial in Munich, accused of handing a German banker a £27m bribe to swing a deal the way he wanted, Bernie Ecclestone let it be known that he was considering a bid to buy the Nürburgring, a historic race track in the Eifel mountains, built in the 1920s. A site of the country’s Formula One grand prix, its future is jeopardised by financial problems. Now, in rides the octogenarian Ecclestone, not merely denying all charges but ready to rescue Germany’s standing in world motor sport.
In both the gesture and its complicated backstory, nothing could be more typical of the man. Spread a little smoke. Blur the picture. Make a few people think there might be something good coming their way. Distract the others. Keep their eyes away from the hands moving across the tabletop in this billionaire’s game of Find the Lady.
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