What next for Bernie and Max ?

June 18th, 2008

What next for Bernie and Max, F1 and FIA?

Bernie Ecclestone is definitelly not happy Max Mosley still heads the FIA. They may be old friends (if there is such thing as friends in F1) but where money talks bullshit walks. And so Bernie has opened his mouth. I was not paying much attention to details of his interview with The Times. Frankly I got tired of the whole Mosley thingy. But when F1Wolf reader nieuwe sent me the article by email I could not resist and read the whole thing.

Here are few quotes, some already widely discussed all over the F1 blogs, some not that much:

“To keep sponsors happy, we are trying to say we can’t break away. But it could well be that it will happen.”

“What the FIA doesn’t have, which is the most important thing for them, is an agreement with the teams they would have with the Concorde Agreement. There is no agreement between the teams and the FIA. There is a commercial agreement that has been signed by the teams and Formula One Management, so the teams can do what they like.”

“I am responsible to our investors who have an awful lot of money invested. And I am responsible to all the teams and manufacturers, who have an awful lot of money invested. Max is responsible to the people in wherever who have no money invested and nor has the FIA got money invested. All they’ve got is the money that comes from Formula One. If there was no Formula One, the FIA would be in serious trouble.”

“The thing that worries me is that the Jewish community controls an awful lot of the finance which comes into Formula One, directly or indirectly. They say the FIA shouldn’t let somebody like Max represent them.”

These may just mind games from Bernie but he may also be dead serious. At the end this issue touches the very part of Fomula 1 Ecclestone cares about the most – his own pocket !

In the meantime, the FIA president, Max Mosley seems to be doing, well, nothing …