After 40 years spent running Formula One virtually single-handedly, Bernie Ecclestone has officially been removed from his position by F1’s new owners Liberty Media.
Liberty Media, which completed its £6.4 billion takeover of the sport this month, yesterday announced that Chase Carey, vice chairman of 21st Century Fox, would replace Ecclestone as CEO.
However, it says much about 86-year old Ecclestone’s infamously personal approach to running F1 that his ultimate responsibilities will be split between no fewer than three different people.
Carey will take the CEO role, while former ESPN vice-president Sean Bratches will handle the commercial side of the business. Finally, long-time Formula One team principal Ross Brawn will become managing director of motorsports and will look after the sporting and technical side of the business.
Ecclestone, meanwhile, has been appointed the role of chairman emeritus and will essentially act as an adviser to the board, though exactly what the new job will entail remains to be seen and it’s unlikely he will retain any amount of executive control over the sport.
Earlier this week, he told German publication Auto Motor und Sport that he had been essentially “forced out” during the takeover, saying: “I was dismissed. This is official. I no longer run the company. My position has been taken by Chase Carey.”
What's next for Ecclestone?
He added that even he wasn’t sure of what his new job title meant exactly, however upon Liberty’s official announcement he offered a more measured statement and said: “I’m proud of the business that I built over the last 40 years and all that I have achieved with Formula One.
“I’m very pleased that the business has been acquired by Liberty and that it intends to invest in the future of F1,” he added. “I am sure that Chase will execute his role in a way that will benefit the sport.”
Although news that Liberty Media was going to acquire Formula One broke back in September 2016, the speed at which the US media conglomerate has moved to oust Ecclestone has surprised pundits, fans and industry insiders alike and it sends a clear message as to Liberty’s intention to shake up the sport.
Previous reports suggested that Ecclestone would retain his job following the acquisition for two to three years to facilitate a smoother handover. But now that he’s been replaced by Carey, this represents the most sudden and significant shift in the F1 world since Ecclestone took over in the 1970s and transformed the sport into a global business empire.
Previous owners, equity firm CVC, purchased the Formula One Group back in 2006 but were happy to leave the everyday running in Ecclestone’s hands. His business acumen was undeniable: in 2003, the sports income was roughly $729 million, but by 2015 that had risen to $1.8 billion.
Born the son of a trawlerman, Ecclestone’s involvement in motorsport started with an unsuccessful career as a driver in the Formula Three series, before he bought his way into the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix but failed to qualify.
Transformation from sport to global business empire
Later, he embarked on a business career managing various racing drivers and teams, before buying out the Brabham team in the early 1970s. By this time, Ecclestone had already accrued an enviable fortune, officially citing property development as the source of his wealth despite persistent rumours that he was the mastermind behind the planning and execution of the infamous Great Train Robbery.
Throughout the 1970s, he steadily increased his power and influence in the sport, to the point where he became responsible for the negotiation of television rights for the races. Ecclestone’s stroke of genius was to convince TV stations to buy the rights to entire seasons as a package, rather than bid for the right to air individual races.
This vastly increased the sport’s exposure and grew its popularity, and during the 1990s a company owned by Ecclestone officially became the rights holder of F1, with a contract signed in 2000 that declared Ecclestone’s firm would hold the commercial rights to the sport for the next 110 years.
Despite attempts by authorities to exercise some form of control over Ecclestone’s domination of the sport, he has essentially remained the single most powerful figure in motorsport until Liberty’s takeover.
That he had for so long resisted curtailment of his power makes his swift removal all the more shocking, while it remains to be seen exactly how Liberty Media will modify the vast empire he had cultivated over the past four decades.
Where does the future of F1 lie?
Liberty has previously made clear that it intends to significantly shake up the way that Formula One is run. Despite Ecclestone’s incredible business savvy, he has attracted criticism from fans in the past few years for his lack of engagement with viewers, and the number of people watching F1 races worldwide has tumbled from 600 million to 400 million since 2008.
In stark contrast, Carey, who noted Ecclestone’s huge impact on the sport’s popularity and said that “he will always be part of the F1 family”, has made it clear that one of Liberty’s main aims will be to attract interest from fans, teams and shareholders alike.
Specifically, Carey has referenced an increase in promotion and marketing as well as the preservation of classic tracks and venues, which had been increasingly eschewed under Ecclestone, who favoured locations that were more lucrative but less popular with viewers.
Liberty will doubtless be looking for similar financial returns but, on the surface at least, appears to be gearing up to go
about it in much different ways. The decision will no doubt be welcomed by F1 fans as well as Bernie detractors, who have become increasingly critical of his pursuit of putting the profits before the sport.
But in spite of all this and despite the numerous controversies which have tailed Ecclestone like a shadow for the past four decades, his abilities as a businessman and the incredible legacy he’s built around himself will remain the yardstick against which Formula One’s new direction will be measured for years.