Feeling The Bern? Ecclestone Thinks F1 Elite Are Set To Oust Him.

by Gregson Mathe 17 May, 2016, 2:47 pm 264 Views

In recent years, many questions have been brought to light about Bernie Ecclestone and his arguably poor decisions when it comes to Formula 1 and it’s future. Fans don’t like him, he’s a pretty sexist dude, and I’m willing to bet a week’s salary that many of the teams aren’t big fans either.

That being said, F1 is still the premiere racing league in the entire world. Bernie has built it up to that. However, is seems as though he’s beginning to question the following he has, even within the top tier of the F1 ranks.

Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday confirmed reports some of Formula One’s major stakeholders are “plotting” his demise. It has been reported this month that Mercedes and Red Bull have joined Ferrari in apparently moving against the long-time F1 supremo, with plans to replace the 85-year-old Briton with a three-pronged leadership team.

Niki Lauda has been named as the potential head of the ‘sporting’ arm but the F1 legend nixed those claims in Barcelona.

“Toto Wolff and I have a big enough job here with Mercedes, and we even own shares in the team. We are successful and everything works fine,” Lauda added.

One suggestion, however, is that Lauda is already scaling down his other commitments ahead of a possible change of leadership in F1.

For instance, he is no longer a full-time pundit for German television RTL.

Lauda insists: “That was RTL’s decision, who did it for budgetary reasons. Less money means less Niki.

“I want to emphasise [sic] that it was not my idea,” Lauda insisted.

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone except Bernie Himself. Many fans consider the “demise” of modern Formula 1 to be Bernie’s fault entirely. This isn’t 100% true, but he is the leading voice in the sport and consistently makes decisions that are questionable to even the staunchest of F1 supporters.

And in typical Bernie fashion, he gave is a good sound bite to cap it all off.

When asked by former driver and respected commentator Martin Brundle if the plot is to “get rid” of Ecclestone, the F1 CEO added: “They’ve got more chance of getting struck by lightning.

“They should start doing the pools (playing the lottery),” Ecclestone said.

Amazing. Whether this is all true or not, or if this ever comes to fruition, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though, Bernie is now looking over his shoulder and might be making some better decisions in the not too distant future.

(Source: Autoweek)