Tag Archives: Bernie Ecclestone

Automobiles

Report: Indian Grand Prix in jeopardy?

Leave a comment

By Brandon Turkus

2011 Indian Grand Prix first corner

Filed under:

BBC Sport is reporting that Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One boss and indicted briber, has said the Indian Grand Prix will “probably not” happen in 2014. The race, which takes place at the purpose-built Buddh International Circuit, is in danger due to a combination of reasons, including Ecclestone’s desire to move India from its current slot in October to the beginning of the season, in March or April.

According to the BBC, this is to accommodate a schedule envisioned by Ecclestone that adds races in Austria, New Jersey and Russia, in addition to the current 19-race calendar. Why the shuffle, though? The teams aren’t too excited about a longer season, and Ecclestone is hoping that by moving India to the start of the season, with China, Malaysia and the season opener in Australia, he can knock out four of the seven Asia-Pacific-region races in one fell swoop.

This poses a problem for India, though, as it’d be forced to run a race in October of 2014 and then do the whole thing over again in six or seven months. According to the head of India’s motorsports federation, Vicky Chandhok, that doesn’t give the country enough recovery time, with Chandhok going so far as to say the early season date “would be impossible for us in terms of finances and resources.”

There’s also a dustup over India’s import tax, that could hamper this year’s race. The Indian government is attempting to tax teams on their Indian earnings rather than on their profits, which would result in teams having to paying considerably more in taxes.

2013 marks only the third F1 race at the Buddh Circuit. But if Bernie doesn’t get his way, and the tax issues aren’t sorted, the track could go the way of Turkey’s Istanbul Park, another circuit built solely to attract F1, that lasted a mere six seasons before being dropped from the calendar.

Indian Grand Prix in jeopardy? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Report: F1 Supremo Ecclestone indicted on bribery charges

Leave a comment

By Brandon Turkus

Filed under:

Bernie Ecclestone, the elderly head of Formula One, has been indicted by German courts on charges of bribery. This follows reports that had the UK citizen in trouble over payments to Gerhard Gribkowsky, a former German banker with Bayern Landesbank.

Gribkowsky, who will be resting comfortably in a Munich prison for the next eight-and-a-half years, naturally has a story that conflicts with Ecclestone’s. According to the German, who oversaw the sale of F1 from Bayern Landesbank in 2006, Ecclestone paid him to undervalue F1’s shares while it was sold to CVC Capital Partners. The BBC says Gribkowsky was paid $41.4 million in commissions along with an undisclosed payment from the Ecclestone family’s trust.

According to Ecclestone, though, the money paid to Gribkowsky was extorted by the German banker. Ecclestone believed that false information was going to be leaked to the British government regarding illicit tax dealings, which according to Forbes, could have cost Ecclestone up to $3 billion.

Ecclestone has until the middle of August to reply to the charges. It’s then up to the German courts to decide whether a trial will be necessary. Based on the he-said-she-said nature of the charges, we wonder how much trouble Bernie is actually in. If found guilty of bribery, Ecclestone could face 10 years in prison.

F1 Supremo Ecclestone indicted on bribery charges originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

News, Politics, Government

Bernie Ecclestone — indispensable F1 supremo

Leave a comment

Bernie Ecclestone started out as a simple second-hand car salesman and went on to transform Formula One motor-racing into one of the most profitable sports the world.

German prosecutors on Wednesday indicted the British magnate on a bribery charge, but the 82-year-old has refused to resign as Formula One boss, despite facing a trial and a possible prison sentence.

However, the prospect of having to find a replacement for Ecclestone, on whose F1 decisions hang billion of dollars, sent shivers through the motor racing fraternity.

“F1 is what it is thanks to Bernie Ecclestone, to the way he has built this sport over the past 35 years,” said his compatriot Christian Horner, team principal at world champions Red Bull, when asked about a possible succession.

“Everything we see here is based on what he did and succeeded in doing. I think that without him we would have big problems.”

Despite his age, Ecclestone has brushed off suggestions that he is soon to retire and has insisted that his legal woes will not lead him to resign.

“I don’t see why I should do that, I will do what I have always done: keep working and do my job,” Ecclestone told German newspaper Bild.

Ecclestone has been charged by Munich prosecutors in relation to a $44 million (33.6 million euro) payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky which was linked to the sale of the Formula One rights in 2006.

Dubbed “Napoleon” due to his 1.63-metre (five foot, four inch) stature and firm control over Formula One, Ecclestone was valued by Forbes magazine at $3.8 billion in March 2013, making him one of the richest 500 people in the world.

He is no stranger to controversy.

He was in the spotlight in late 1997 owing to a donation of 1.5 million pounds ($2.3 million, 1.75 million euros) to the Labour Party of then prime minister Tony Blair, which subsequently authorised the continued use of tobacco advertising by the sport.

Holder of a degree from Woolwich Polytechnic in southeast London, Ecclestone, known for his trademark white shirt and black trousers, began his career selling cars and motorcycles in the capital, and also briefly drove race cars himself.

However, his career was cut short by an accident.

In the early 1970s, Ecclestone set up the Brabham team.

Then, with competitors, he established the Formula One Constructors Association, gathering around him the other chiefs of motor racing stables to defend their interests against what became the International Automobile Federation (FIA).

One of the first to recognise the potential in sponsorship, he became the exclusive manager of F1 rights, taking the helm of Formula One Management, negotiating with circuits, advertisers and television stations.

“The contracts he negotiated, the circuits and the countries to which he brought F1, are remarkable. As long as he has the passion and enthusiasm to continue it is in our interests that he does it as long as possible,” Horner said.

“The day he is no longer there our sport will go much less well,” said the man some see as a potential successor to Ecclestone.

Ecclestone’s fortune …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Ecclestone charged with bribery in Germany

Leave a comment

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone was on Wednesday charged with bribery by German prosecutors.

The 82-year-old motor racing magnate has been charged by state prosecutors in Munich in relation to a $44 million (33.6 million euro, ??29 million) payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, which was linked to the sale of the Formula One rights in 2006.

Last month, Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail in Munich and Ecclestone has always denied bribing the German to avoid a British tax inquiry into the sale of Formula One, claiming he was blackmailed by Gribkowsky.

Ecclestone has already told the Financial Times newspaper he will be defending the indictment having spoken to his lawyers.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Automobiles

Report: Ecclestone wonders if F1's upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos]

Leave a comment

By Jonathon Ramsey

Filed under:

While every team on the Formula One grid is worried about making a good showing in this year’s championship at the same time as they develop a brand-new car for next year’s championship, Bernie Ecclestone and F1 circuit promoters have a different concern: how next year’s cars will sound. The current cars use 2.4-liter, naturally-aspirated V8s that can reach 18,000 revolutions per minute and employ dual exhaust, next year’s engine formula calls for 1.4-liter turbocharged V6s that are capped at 15,000 rpm and are constrained to a single exhaust outlet. Ecclestone and promoters like Ron Walker believe the new engines sound like lawnmowers and that the less thrilling audio will keep people from coming to races. If Walker’s Australian Grand Prix really is shelling out almost $57 million to hold the race, every ticket counts. As a fix, according to a report in Autoweek, Ecclestone “suggests that the only way to guarantee [a good sound] may be to artificially adjust the tone of the V6s.”

However, neither the manufacturers nor the governing body of F1, the FIA, think there will be a problem. Ecclestone fears that if the manufacturers “don’t get it right” they’ll simply leave the sport, but the only three carmakers and engine builders left next year, Renault (its 2014 “power unit” is pictured), Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari are so embedded that it would stretch belief to think they’d leave the table over an audio hiccup – if said hiccup even occurs. And frankly, these issues always precede changes to engine formulas, as they did when the formula switched from V10 to V8; fans, though, are probably less focused on the engines and more on the mandated standardization of the sport and the spec-series overtones that have come with it.

No one knows yet what next year’s engines will sound like, but we’ve assembled a few videos below to help us all start guessing. The first is an engine check on an Eighties-era John Player Special Renault with a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, after that is Ayrton Senna qualifying in 1986 in the Lotus 98T that also had a 1.5-liter V6 turbo, then you’ll find a short with a manufactured range of potential V6 engine notes, and then the sound of turbocharged V6 Indycars testing last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Any, or none of them, could be Formula One‘s future.

Continue reading Ecclestone wonders if F1’s upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos]

Ecclestone wonders if F1’s upcoming turbo V6s should get augmented sound [w/videos] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Motorsports: Victoria's Secret No More: Price of Aussie F1 race leaks out [w/video]

Leave a comment

By Seyth Miersma

Filed under: , , ,

How much does it cost for a city to host the Formula One circus? Well, considering how clandestine are the dealings of F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, we may never fully know. But, thanks to some leaked information to Australia’s Herald Sun, we do now have a pretty good indication of what that city must pay for the privilege of being an F1 venue – and it ain’t cheap folks.

In an exclusive report from the Aussie paper, we’re told that Formula One‘s license fee for the Australian Grand Prix, in Melbourne, Victoria, has increased in price each year of a five-year contract; starting at $31 million (US dollars) in 2011 and moving up to $37 million in 2015. In fact, in 2012, the $32.5 million license fee to F1 was the major line item in a total of some $56.7 million paid by, according to the Herald Sun, the taxpayers of Victoria.

The fee paid to F1 has been a well-protected secret up until now, and officials from both the racing organization and the Australian government are refusing to confirm or deny the figures reported via the leaked documents. Government officials have been vocal in their defense of the soundness of the business decisions behind bringing and keeping the race in Melbourne, however. And, in fact, former Premier Jeff Kennett went so far as to say that the deal is a bit of a steal, relative to what other locales pay to Formula One.

Of Ecclestone Kennett said, “Victorians have been getting it at such a good deal, it might cause him some embarrassment.”

Scroll down for a statement on the leaked fee documents, and more, from Grand Prix Corporation chief Andrew Westacott, in the video below.

Continue reading Victoria’s Secret No More: Price of Aussie F1 race leaks out [w/video]

Victoria’s Secret No More: Price of Aussie F1 race leaks out [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog