12/21/24
April 04, 2008
The $6 billion heist: "All in all he [Bernie Ecclestone] took US$3.25 billion out of Formula One thanks to his deals with Mosley. And this on top of the US$1.7 billion he had earned from the APM deals and the US$1 billion he had received as commission for his companies. By the time 2007 closed, since Mosley had become FIA president in 1991, Ecclestone had extracted nearly US$6 billion in profits from Formula One. One astute observer said: 'It is the biggest heist in history.' The same observer reckoned Ecclestone was legitimately entitled to only US$1 billion. He said: 'Ecclestone could have been a billionaire without Mosley’s help, but that wasn’t enough.' ”
posted by salmacis to auto racing at 04:39 AM - 3 comments
Thanks for the post salmacis. Interesting article there. It is funny and not coincidence that my interest in F1 has waned in time with the points outlined in the article. Mosley is a sham and should be outed as president of the FIA. The problem is there is no one groomed for the position, well actually that is a good thing. The problem is Bernie won't let any major changes happen and will tie things up in court. Ironically, if it does go to court he could outspend the FIA with what is rightfully their money. Well played by Bernie and Max using the competitive nature of the teams to get things swung in their favor. Played them off against each other. Too bad the GPMA boys didn't stick together, then Bernie and Max would have no races. For me the joy of F1 was the tip of the spear, cutting edge technology that used to be there. This series used to be the pinnacle of motorsport with tech trickling down to road cars. Seems now Max wants trickle up from road cars. A shame if you ask me. Go MotoGP.
posted by chuck'n'duck at 05:02 AM on April 05, 2008
Patrick Head of Williams once said in regards to Ecclestone, and I'm going to have to paraphrase unfortunately as I can't remember the exact wording, "Bernie basically took possession of F1 despite not actually owning it, and we all just let him do it." Some interesting background on how all that happened: http://8w.forix.com/fiasco-onset.html Lot of people don't realise that Mosley was actually Bernie's lawyer before he took control of the FIA by basically stabbing Balestre in the back. (Still, he'll be gone soon. Him and his Nazi Hookers.)