Bernie Ecclestone has hit back at F1 CEO Chase Carey’s comments about the former supremo’s management of Formula 1 in the recent years and his lack of vision.
Carey, who praised Ecclestone for growing the sport to its blockbuster status, said that the 86-year-old had managed F1 for the short term benefit of its shareholders and had failed to bring Grand Prix racing into the digital age.
While Mr. E is not entirely disputing Chase Carey’s claims, he denies his guidance was ill-fated or inefficceint.
“He’s probably dead right,” he told the Mail.
“If an idea was not going to make money or waste everyone’s time I did say ‘No’.
“He’s not very specific, is he?” he continued.
“I’d like him to say, ‘Bernie did this or that and it was stupid’.
“I ran a company as chief executive that had to show a profit. If I ran it inefficiently Liberty probably wouldn’t have bought the shares.
“I had to make sure we could get the maximum financially we could for the company to make it interesting for somebody to buy, which is obviously what happened.
“It appears he doesn’t need to make money any more. But it’s good he has an opinion.
“Maybe there are things I missed and maybe they will come up with things and hopefully it moves forward,” he added.
As Liberty Media reaches its 100 days at the helm of Formula 1, and while it’s still early days, Ecclestone also questions the company’s accomplishments to date.
“What has he done up to now?” asked Ecclestone.
“He said he was going to open up the paddock, get more people in. And what he did was withdraw paddock passes from senior Russians in Sochi, apparently including President Putin.
“He talks about the social media side, but I haven’t seen anything he’s done that has been beneficial to Formula One,” he added.
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