What is Bernie Thinking?

[Super Tourer]

We haven't heard much from BE on F1 in general, of late.

What is he thinking, I wonder?

1. His old ally and political foil, Max Moseley is to flee the nest, leaving Bernie to 'work' with another FIA chief, will he feel more exposed without Max's legal nous and approach to things?

2. The Concorde agreement is almost up and he faces two scenarios, the unlikely one is that the GPWC manages to form a series leaving BE to preside over an IRL/CART type split. Even if they don't, there is the scope for them to bluff BE into giving the teams a better deal, than he otherwise might.

More likely is that he will have to surrender a greater amount of his revenue to the teams. Bernie is a very rich man so the effect would be minimal, but he has built a career on getting the best out of every deal, so it would be a potential mental blow to bow to the teams demands.

3. Despite his best efforts to move races further out of Europe, the WHO tobacco ban has followed him around the globe and in some cases beaten him to it. Before long tobacco sponsorship, the main funder of F1,will not be welcome in any country.

4. Promoters are coughing at the huge cost and risk of putting on a race. Governments in 'developing' markets for F1, are only going to subsidise races for so long, so the whole viability of staging races will come to a head sooner or later. Similarly when TV deals come up for renewal, company bosses will point to falling viewing figures and reduced advertising revenue as a reason for offering less money.

5. Many of the 'old school' that Bernie has 'grown up with ' in F1, like FW and Ron D are edging to retirement age and it's unlikely that he would ever have the same relationship with the corporate types from the likes of BMW and Mercedes, that will probably form the next generation of team bosses.

6. Significantly BE was 'defeated' in his plan to change the qualifying format mid-season, normally it would only have taken a 'word in an ear' for BE to get things to move in his direction.

7. The 'power base' base has significantly shifted in favour of the teams, and more importantly the factory teams. Even old stagers like McLaren are effectively becoming corporate offshoots of an even larger corporation, where is Bernie's point of contact with them? He is out of the car trader mould, where there is always a deal to be done, nowadays many of the F1 cards are held by boardrooms in Bavaria, Tokyo and Detroit.

Interesting times ahead for BE, I think. Will he 'fight on' or sell up I wonder and if so who too, the worlds bankers have already got their fingers burnt buying into F1.....

[Kicking-back]

Interesting times indeed - and I suspect only time can provide you with any answers.

[Peter Mallett]

Anybody remember FOCA?

[Dan Rear]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Anybody remember FOCA?

Anyone still interested ?????

[frederick]

Any chance that we might see Max make a return on the other side of the fence?....as Bernie's replacement??

[klb]

3. Despite his best efforts to move races further out of Europe, the WHO tobacco ban has followed him around the globe and in some cases beaten him to it. Before long tobacco sponsorship, the main funder of F1,will not be welcome in any country.

F1 teams should be prepared for the day when tobaco advertising goes the way of the dodo. It's hardly a secret it's going. What the heck are the F1 bosses waiting for??



:confused:

[PaulSands]

Don't worry Bernie's is over any feeling of loss and is back to his usual business of bashing Silverstone

[RWC]

Basically bernie is screwed

Max will no longer be around to hand him 100 year rights to make money and the teams are getting thoroughly sick and tired of him.

The best bern can hope for is to be an agent for the teams- to negotiate GP event rights.And his pay will at last comeasurate with that role- i.e about 20% instead of the 60% or so he rapes from the sport right now

[Peter Mallett]

Just a small point.

In 1979 we were all thoroughly p!55ed off (yes I avoided the censor) with J M Balestre (sp). Bernie formed and developed FOCA. He realised that teams had more power than drivers.

We all aplauded it and it gained support. Maybe it has run it's course but let's not disrespect someone who not only made a show for us but made it safer for the participants.

Max helped it. We may not always appreciate what he's done but it is faster, and it is certainly safer.