05/05/2017
NEWS STORY
Much like a new partner who seems determined to find fault with everything about their predecessor; their hair, their clothes, their taste in music, their lack of a moustache... since becoming the new boss of F1 Chase Carey has wasted no time in telling the world how much better F1 could have been if Bernie Ecclestone had been less of a dictator and more open to the ideas of others.
Indeed, as we await FOM's first major hurdle, trying to keep the teams in line and reducing their slice of the prize pot, one wonders how much more (than $8bn) Liberty Media would have had to pay had Ecclestone made a success of the business.
Ecclestone, who is a street fighter of the old school and clearly not entirely done with the sport, responded to Carey's comments in the way he knows best, through the media and at a number of levels.
"He's probably dead right," he told the Mail. "If an idea was not going to make money or waste everyone's time I did say 'No'.
"He's not very specific, is he?" he continued. "I'd like him to say, 'Bernie did this or that and it was stupid'.
"I ran a company as chief executive that had to show a profit. If I ran it inefficiently Liberty probably wouldn't have bought the shares. I had to make sure we could get the maximum financially we could for the company to make it interesting for somebody to buy, which is obviously what happened. It appears he doesn't need to make money any more. But it's good he has an opinion.
"Maybe there are things I missed and maybe they will come up with things and hopefully it moves forward," he added.
In our latest Podcast, Max Noble pays tribute to Ecclestone, congratulating the former F1 supremo on the finest (only?) overtaking manoeuvre of race day, when the Briton edged in front of Carey to take pride of place alongside Vladimir Putin.
Indeed, for much of the weekend Ecclestone sported the same jacket as members of the Russian Federation as opposed to the FOM variety worn by Carey and his crew.
Using Sochi as an example, Ecclestone asked, other than talk and make promises, what exactly Carey has achieved as we approach the first one hundred days under his leadership.
"What has he done up to now?" asked Ecclestone. "He said he was going to open up the paddock, get more people in. And what he did was withdraw paddock passes from senior Russians in Sochi, apparently including President Putin.
"He talks about the social media side, but I haven't seen anything he's done that has been beneficial to Formula One," he added.