Formula One Group initiates board shake-up

©WRI2

Formula 1's new owners will begin management changes at the helm of the sport next week, starting with a complete shake-up of its board of directors.

According to Sky Sports, all of the existing board members of F1's parent company will be replaced, with the exception of former chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.

Prominent figures such as WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell, former Unilever CFO Jean-Marc Huet and former Exxon Mobil Asia boss Chong Seng Kwa will no longer have any involvement with the sport's new commercials rights holder.

CVC Capital Partner's Donald Mackenzie, who spearheaded the private equity company's lucrative investment in F1 in 2005, will remain a company director along with Sean Mahoney, a trustee for the Lehman Brothers estate.

'Life president' role mooted for Ecclestone

Current CEO Bernie Ecclestone is expected to be offered a position as honorary president although it is uncertain whether the man who captained Formula 1's extraordinary rise around the globe would accept the symbolic and passive role.

It emerged last week that former ESPN executive Sean Bratches had been approached by Liberty Media to oversee the sport's commercial affairs while Ross Brawn is under consideration for a key role associated with the sporting side of the business.

GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.