Ecclestone impossible to replace with one man - Montezemolo

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Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo believes it would be a mistake if F1 attempted to try and replace Bernie Ecclestone with one person.

Ecclestone is now 85 and has faced criticism for his comments and running of F1 in the past, but continues to bring in major commercial deals while the current calendar stands at a record 21 races. Montezemolo says Ecclestone's age makes it necessary to consider a successor but believes the whole structure of the sport needs to change.

"Sooner or later, F1 has to think how to replace Bernie," Montezemolo told CNN's The Circuit. "Bernie is a fantastic person. It will be impossible and a mistake to find one man to replace him -- it's important to think of a new governance."

And Montezemolo believes the structure should be similar to those stakeholders who currently have a say but with no crossover between each of them.

"For F1 it is better to have three different but clear owners. One is the FIA, which is mainly in charge of rules and political power like a football federation, then the teams, who are the players, and then a commercial owner to promote the sport and increase its clients. To overlap is a big mistake.

"You need a small group of people, very strong in each department with someone in charge who knows F1, who has a feeling of what the market needs, of what the tifosi, the fans need."

And when asked whether he is the right man to make F1 successful in the future, Montezemolo replied: "I would be the best in the world to do this, but maybe it's time for someone else."

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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.