Bernie Ecclestone - A Festival of Speed tribute

To conclude the Festival of Speed 2017, Mark Webber spoke to Bernie Ecclestone, whose career was featured on the Goodwood centrepiece sculpture, on the balcony of Goodwood House.

UKMotorTalk - Bernie Ecclestone - A Festival of Speed tribute

Festival of Speed - Sunday in pictures

Goodbye Bernie - "The king is dead. Long live the king."

So the reign of Bernie the great dictator is over ... or is it? 

Bernie Ecclestone, as chief executive of Formula 1, has been deposed by the sport’s new owners, Liberty, and its powerhouse leader, Chase Carey. 

Bernie is to be retitled as Chairman Emeritus an oddly disjointed title in an oddly disjointed scenario.

Chase Carey was fulsome in his praise of Bernie's achievements, if startlingly frank in his observations  that it was time for the 86 year old dictator to head into exile.

He also said in recent years there had been many mistaken decisions pointing the finger of blame in Bernie's direction.

So we are promised a brave new world of F1. New ideas,  new arrangements,  a new concentration on on-line media as global TV audiences have been plummeting and a greater concentration on entertainment. 

Given that the various teams and team bosses have all got very rich under Bernie's rule, it will interesting to see if Chase Carey can corral them into making decisions that benefit the sport rather than their own pockets, personally and corporately, which has often been where the poor decisions came from.

So let's hope the new era under someone who will probably have to become a new dictator is better than before, but pause a moment.

Let's thank Bernie for 4 decades of F1 where his mostly benign tyranny has made a small time weekend warrior sport into a globe-spanning multi-billion pound spectacular where everyone has got rich, the racing has often been spectacular and it's been safer than for many decades without the regular annual slaughter of the young heroes. 

Bernie has yet to say his piece, and it wouldn't be the first time that Bernie has sold something that turned out to be ephemeral, at a price that was very real.

Graham Benge

Friday F1 Fun!

Someone at Formula1sBlog has kindly put together a selection of the funny and daft things that F1 drivers are required to do for their sponsors…

And where would we be on a Friday afternoon without them!!

Bernie Ecclestone to face German court

So the case against Bernie is finally to go to court in Germany after being dragged through lower regional courts for nearly a decade.

Bernie of course denies that he bribed a German banker to smooth the deal which sold the greatest part of Bernie's F1 rights to a pan-European group of investment bankers.

The prosecutors case as so far stated seems to rely solely upon evidence from the imprisoned German banker.

I find it very curious that this has rumbled on for so long before any charges have actually been laid against Bernie.

The whole thing is almost Machiavellian which perhaps seems apt as Bernie is involved BUT let's see what other evidence appears. I'm ready to believe Bernie is  shrewd, manipulative, a tough negotiator but a criminal? I don't believe so, he is simply not that stupid.

Time will tell…

Graham Benge

It's what you've been waiting for...! - UKMT's F1 briefing for 2010...

Just when you thought we'd forgotten... ;-)

Graham Benge, Andrew Denyer and Dave Wakefield discuss the forthcoming 2010 F1 season...:

New Cars
New Teams
New Driver line-ups
Who will be Champion?

For more, visit http://www.ukmotortalk.co.uk/

Spyk'd - SAAB to be saved at the last minute or consigned to Valhalla?

As one of the three main major markets for SAAB worldwide, we in the UK might be forgiven for taking more than a passing interest in the tempestuous fortunes of Sweden's 'other' car manufacturer.

We've commented before here at UkMotorTalk on the travails of the company and have made no secret of the fact that we would be very sorry indeed to see this once innovative marque disappear for good into the acrid smoke of General Motors' financial implosion.

With yesterday's hints that the tiny Dutch sports car company Spyker was close to finalising its protracted purchase of SAAB and a huge 70-something percent leap in their share price on Euronext Amsterdam it appeared to us that perhaps this unlikely purchase was indeed about to come to fruition.

This news came as Luxembourg investors Genii Capital - who had also tabled a last minute bid in conjunction with none other than one Bernard Ecclestone (aka "The King of F1 © ® TM") - looked to have fallen out of the running to take over the company, leaving Spyker as the sole remaining suitor asking for the Swede's hand in marriage.

So - deal done then or will The General still be of the opinion that the Dutch bid wasn't serious enough?

Well, later on in the day, a much anticipated press conference (partly responsible it seems for fuelling the rumours of a successful deal with its attendant skyrocketing of Spyker's share price) in Detroit appeared to pour a liberal dose of cold water on the story with GM's Head Honcho Ed Whitacre stating bluntly that no deal had yet been done and the winding down of SAAB would continue as planned.

To those of us following this saga with interest and, it has to be said, crossed fingers this came as just another opportunity to exhale resignedly and slump the shoulders that little bit more as the old 'one step forward, one step back' dance routine played itself out yet again.

Ever since Spyker, a diminutive manufacturer of bespoke and, dare we say, slighly mad motor cars for the well-heeled individual threw its hat into the ring we've been somewhat confused as to just where the Hell they were going to get the money from, let alone how a tiny little operation such as they are was going to take on the running of the operation which in 2008 produced approximately 90,000 vehicles. (Spyker's projected output from its new Midlands facility - 50 cars per year).

The Dutch company has investment from both Russian and Middle Eastern sources and doesn't appear to be suffering unduly in the teeth of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s but all the same, given that Koenigsegg (another relatively well-funded potential owner and producer of slightly less mainstream automobiles) got cold feet and bailed out of the deal earlier on, a Dutch/Swedish tie-up still looks as tenuous as it ever did.

From a more optimistic point of view, were Spyker and General Motors to come to a 12th-hour style arrangement, what could we expect from this new outfit?

The general feeling by those in the industry is that SAAB have for quite some time now been a shadow of their former quirky, innovative selves, getting by with creaky, re-hashed versions of cars that originally saw the light of day - in the case of the venerable 9-5 at least - as long ago as 1997. And whilst a bold replacement for the aforementioned midsize exec is still being readied for production despite the continuing shutting down of the company it remains to be seen whether this much-needed car will ever see the dim light of a Scandinavian Spring or be offered to the Chinese to go with the rest of SAAB's ageing line-up to which they have purchased the rights, further complicating Spyker's task of rebuilding the brand.

For what it's worth, we believe that there is much that the two companies could learn from one another.

Spyker has expertise in constructing its own chassis and major components whilst buying in engines and transmissions from such manufacturers as Audi (in the case of its bonkers C8).

Couple this with SAAB's undoubted underlying innovation; they were first with direct ignition, turbo-charged mass-production engines, active safety systems and so on - honed perhaps through neccessity as GM pulled the purse-strings ever tighter - and the two companies would seem to have the making of an unlikely yet complementary relationship as a lean yet innovative producer of safe & thoughtful (SAAB) yet well-built and enjoyable (Spyker) sporting saloons and coupes.

Appealing perhaps to those who look for quality, innovation, quirkiness and sporting characteristics in their motor but are dissuaded from maybe buying an Alfa Romeo due to (partly unfair) concerns over quality, SAAB might well find that they flourish under the reins of a company who know how to build fun and excitement into their products whilst they bring a dose of Scandinavian practicality and real-world pricing to the party.

All this may well come to nought, and given the ominous noises coming from Motor City this is sadly looking more likely by the day, but we here at UkMotorTalk are still holding out some hope for what we at least believe could be the making of a beautiful relationship..

Dave Wakefield

Every Cloud Has A Silver(stone) Lining.

There were those who said back in the Summer of 2008 that Donington's surprise award of the British Grand Prix would never come to pass.

Too ambitious they said, too little time to turn the appealingly quaint circuit next to the East Midlands Airport into a venue fit for the premier tier of four-wheeled motorsport.

Well, as it transpired, they were correct, although the major global recession probably contributed more than anything to the demise of Donington's dream of once more hosting Formula One racing.

Whilst we were sorry to be saying goodbye to Silverstone, F1's traditional permanent home in the UK since 1987, we did want Donington to succeed as they seemed to be putting so much time, effort and funding into a project which they assured us would result in state of the art facilities and an exciting circuit for Bernie's circus to come and play at in the Summer.

Alas, as we all now know, the aforementioned recession did for Donington's plans what it had done for Lehman Brothers, Woolworths and the entire Icelandic banking system and after some to-ing and fro-ing between the British Racing Drivers Club and Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Administration it was looking likely that an insurmountable impasse was the end result of the tentative negotiations.

With the two sides entrenched, motor racing fans started to fear the worst as deadlines were mentioned and alternative venues around the world lined up to fill Britain's gap in the F1 calendar. One enterprising 'Tweeter' even went so far as to start a #savethebritishgrandprix 'hashtag' to spread the word of the potential end of Britain's unbroken run of hosting Grands Prix.

Well, today after much muttering and leaked internet rumours on forums, Twitter and various other social networking websites, a delighted UK motorsport community got the news that they so desperately wanted - Silverstone would, after all, be hosting the British Grand Prix in 2010 and for the next 16 years after that.

It seems that after much hard bargaining and promises to comprehensively update the circuit and its facilities, common sense has prevailed and the race is to remain at its spiritual home for the forseeable future.
In awarding a contract for such a relatively long period, Ecclestone has finally given the BRDC the stability it needs to raise the neccessary funds to update and enhance Silverstone - something even the most diehard fan of the Northampton circuit would admit is a well-overdue requirement.

So, with one piece of the jigsaw well and truly in place for next year, we can finally look forward to the mouthwatering prospect of two consecutive Formula One World Champions racing one another in equal machinery at their home circuit - a circuit they both love and enjoy the challenge of and one which has regularly seen history made since its first appearance on the F1 calendar way back in 1948.

And, whilst we spare a thought for those behind the ultimately unsuccessful bid to re-introduce Grand Prix racing to the other Midlands circuit, and in particular Tom Wheatcroft who sadly passed away as Donington's plans were unravelling, we congratulate Damon Hill and the BRDC and look forward to what will undoubtedly be an amazing 2010 and beyond for the British Grand Prix.

David Wakefield