Bernie has a Cunning Plan to keep Manufacturers in F1

[Armco Bender]

According to the Suday Times and abridged in Pitpass http://www.pitpass.com/news2/news.cfm?newsid=4945 Bernie is working on a plan to buy back the 75% of F1 shares he's sold off ,if the Manufacturers will buy into the shares, to keep them locked into F1 until 2015.A cunning plan if it works as it stops the Manufacturers breaking away to form thier own championship and it lets Bernie get the shares back to friendlier shareholders, and he doesn't have to put his hands too deep in his own pockets.Not so cunning if the Manufacturers hold out as the 75% could be worthless if they breakaway in 2008.

[RWC]

bernies tried all sorts up scum underhand tricks to keep contol of the money tree that doesn't belong to him.He's taken serious interest in cart so he has a ready made formula to replace f1 with and even trying to buy control of ferrari(!!!) so he can dictate that they stay in the current series(the idea being that f1 will be kind of pointless without ferrari)
He just wants all the money


as allways with bernie

[I Ate Yoko Ono]

Originally posted by RWC
bernies tried all sorts up scum underhand tricks to keep contol of the money tree that doesn't belong to him.He's taken serious interest in cart so he has a ready made formula to replace f1 with and even trying to buy control of ferrari(!!!) so he can dictate that they stay in the current series(the idea being that f1 will be kind of pointless without ferrari)
He just wants all the money


as allways with bernie

He's a winner.

I'm not sure why you are so bitter. I admire the guy. Like Frank Williams he started out as a second hand car dealer. He has taken F1 around the world and into the homes of billions. Good luck to him.

[Logrence]

Bernie's a dude, he has done magnificent things for the sport and I don't understand why people hate him so much - F1 would be tooling around the club circuits these days if it wasn't for him.

So, he's made a bit of money out of it, fair play to the guy.

[Armco Bender]

ccording to reports in the British press, the Panasonic Toyota Formula One team is planning to join forces with Fiat, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford and Renault in the alternate F1 championship series, the GPWC.(Grand Prix World Championship)

Hmmmm that cunning plans not going to work then if the manufacturers are going to play hard ball.Take out all the teams asscoiated with the above and F1 is going to be left as Formula McLaren.

[Wrex]

Originally posted by I Ate Yoko Ono
He's a winner.

I'm not sure why you are so bitter. I admire the guy. Like Frank Williams he started out as a second hand car dealer. He has taken F1 around the world and into the homes of billions. Good luck to him.

Originally posted by Logrence
Bernie's a dude, he has done magnificent things for the sport and I don't understand why people hate him so much - F1 would be tooling around the club circuits these days if it wasn't for him.

So, he's made a bit of money out of it, fair play to the guy.

Agree with both.

Some here are obviously too young to remember the state F1 was in and the direction (or lack of) it was heading when he took control.

He has built an empire, and made alot of guys (Williams/Dennis etc) very wealthy as well.

Bernie is also as pro-F1 as you can get. The manufactures are using F1, not the other way around, never forget that.

[Red]

Originally posted by Wrex
Bernie is also as pro-F1 as you can get.

Yes, and be very much afraid because actually Bernie is old. At one time he WILL eventually retire. Who will be in charge then?

[Armco Bender]

If the manufactureres walk away from F1 though Bernie won't have to worry about a sucessor..

[Red]

Well, actually I am worried about his successor. And that applies to both F1 and GPWC.

[Armco Bender]

How about Flavio Briatore?.

[Red]

Sheese!! Why not Stoddard!

[Armco Bender]

Nah,then he would be moaning about having to much money.

[DSM]

Whatever Bernie's done in the past, there is evidence to show that he's now lost touch. The same goes for Mosely. Whilst some of the recent changes might add something, several do nothing but indicate confusion, panic and lack of clear direction. Time to call it a day, fellows? Or maybe not while at least 2 people make money from it?

[Scarlet]

How about Jean Todt?

Bernie and Max will eventually be replaced by a management group consisting of a representative from each team. Trouble is, it looks like we will end up with a handful of manufacturers controlling several teams, so enjoy the "sport" that remains in F1 before it becomes a fully corporatised system, existing for the sole purpose of delivering global marketing messages.

[Logrence]

Why not me?

[Spaced Invader]

why do the sentence 'Bernie has a cunning plan' frighten me. the man is a fool.

[Logrence]

A fool?! Can you justify that statement at all?

[Spaced Invader]

hmmm well look at the demise of F1 recently. who would you blame? Ferrari? Michael? or the man in charge of it all? if a football team with good players is doing badly the blame goes to the man in charge i.e the manager and chairman. in this case that is Bernie. plus dropping Spa justifies him being a fool through and through.

[Red]

Are you kidding me? What exactly did you want him to do? Stop them a la 1994? What is the connection with the football and the chairman of a club? This is not a F1 club. It is about 10-11 clubs, each of them having their own managers.

Demise of F1? F1 is just doing OK. I mean it WAS doing ok, until some "chairmen" decided to "improve the show". You want to see what demise of F1 means? Just wait a couple of years and THET see the demise of F1. Especially in 2008.

Please get your facts. F1 did not drop Spa. It was Belgium who decided to drop F1.

[Logrence]

Originally posted by Spaced Invader
hmmm well look at the demise of F1 recently. who would you blame? Ferrari? Michael? or the man in charge of it all? if a football team with good players is doing badly the blame goes to the man in charge i.e the manager and chairman. in this case that is Bernie. plus dropping Spa justifies him being a fool through and through.

You what?!

There IS no demise - Formula One is a victim of a worldwide recession - the teams weren't doing anything about, Bernie stepped in and let Max take the credit in case it went tits up. If you were going to blame anyone it would be all the teams except Ferrari for not being professional enough, but you wouldn't.

F1 isn't a football team, it's a sport. A business. If anything BE is showing he has a firm grip on the situation - too much detail to go into, but the teams certainly won't come out of the current situation on top.

[rush1]

Here in the states, Bill France has done with NASCAR what Ecclestone did with F1. He turned NASCAR from a southern dirt track series into a currently billion dollar goliath. France has also made many owners millions. To bad the racing is poor, in my opinion.

One need only look to American open wheel racing to see the perils of bad leadership at the top. Prince Tony George and CART owners are killing the sport or weakening CART to the point where Bernie might buy into it.

Having an "enlightend" dictator running things seems to work well. For the sake of F1, I hope they find a good one after Ecclestone.

[Smokey 6 litre]

Bernie has done about as much good to F1 as the 'Premiership' has to English football,
before any arguments to what this means, the 'premiership' is bad, too much money goes there and forces lower league teams (the training ground of English football) into poverty.
Bernie is far too rich and going insane, i heard he wanted to buy an F1 but stil sit on the governing body,
HA, that would be like a criminal sitting their own trial.

[golem]

I don't care where Bernie came from. Greedy is greedy.

Hell, I tend to think F1 would be a damn sight more enjoyable if they DID run it on club circuits with engineering firms making the engines like Repco and Judd, no sterilised tracks and privateers entering for a race or two just because it was their dream.

I'd love to watch a series LIKE THAT on TV as well as Modern F1, and if I had to pick one I'd go the old school. Simply because next week there might be a truly differant story about what happened.
I tend to think and old style F1 series with TV coverage of some of the teams between races would be cool. Seeing what they do, their testing, the all nighters. Semi-professional racing teams with damn talented drivers is interesting in it's own way.

[Armco Bender]

"However the GPWC, the company set up by the manufacturers competing in F1, would themselves like to purchases the banks shares. In fact according to Ferrari President Luca Montezemolo, FIAT, Ford, BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Renault, would like a championship that they control that does not involve the banks or Ecclestone.

"Bernie has done an excellent job transforming F1 but he has now dramatically changed the picture. It's his biggest mistake. He wanted too much for himself," he said.

"As a manager he got more than the teams because he was good, but now the car manufacturers are not prepared to fund the banks, they prefer to have it in their own pockets. Without us in 2008, the banks will own 100 percent of nothing. We are preparing a new championship without banks, without Bernie and with a far bigger cake."

The GPWC has already appointed Goldman Sachs to negotiate with the banks to buy their shares in SLEC, and should that fail they may go ahead with their plan to set up a rival series when the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of the 2007 season."....from Planet F1

So the Manufacturers have already moved to buy the shares.If they get them does this give them control of F1?.There seems to be a bit of confusion on some sites as to who owns how much of the shares.