Ecclestone 'no longer feels wanted at Grand Prix races'

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Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says that the sport's new owners don't want him attending Grand Prix events in 2018.

Ecclestone is officially still 'chairman emeritus' of F1. However, he believes that the new management installed since Liberty Media's takeover would prefer he wasn't around.

"I have the feeling that my successors do not want to see me at the track anymore," he told Auto Motor und Sport this week.

Ecclestone said that he disapproves of Liberty's approach of investing heavily in marketing the sport.

"It is important that the teams market themselves, and that the promoters promote their event," he explained. "If FOM competes as a third party, that's only confusing."

He's also no fan of their proposals for engine development after 2020.

Ecclestone: 'Liberty has achieved nothing'

"I would have scrapped this [hybrid] engine, it was a disaster from the date on which it was introduced," he admitted. "But two years ago I told the teams they could keep the damn engine if they increase the fuel flow and the fuel load."

Liberty's proposals have been strongly rejected by Ferrari. The manufacturer's president Sergio Marchionne has even threatened the team could pull out of F1 if the plans go ahead. And Ecclestone doesn't think that's an empty threat.

"Sergio can live without Formula 1," he said. "He is only interested in the business. If Marchionne doesn't like what he sees, he will stop.

"I'm afraid that Ferrari can live without F1, but not vice versa," he continued. "The Ferrari against Mercedes duel mobilised the fans.

"[In the past] I actually apologised to the promoters," he added. "They paid for the old Formula 1 and all they got was Mercedes winning. Now, they're getting value for money again."

"[Ferrari] were smart enough to look at the other teams and bring on board good people."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.