Bernie Ecclestone – A stubborn old hobbit who we all call the CEO of Formula 1 or a creative genius?
Bernie Ecclestone, the CEO of Formula 1, the brains behind what Formula 1 is right now, is almost 80 years old now. Quite unbelievable but this is the truth as he has been a part of Formula 1 for around 50 years now. Bernie Ecclestone is usually known as
the main idea provider and the brains of the sport. Bernie has been like the Dumbledore of Formula 1 and took Formula 1 to its peak but recently, he has lost his marbles and gone nuts.
It seems that Bernie has been high without even doing any drugs, since the beginning of this season as he has been obsessed with introducing new venues for Formula 1 in various countries around the world. This is a good idea in the long run and only if it
is given some time, however, Bernie believes that he will be able to introduce a handful of new venues before 2014 including tracks in Rome, Russia, Africa and many other pointless venues.
The idea of bringing new tracks is not so bad, but bringing them in after such a small amount of time is plain weird after keeping in mind what the sport is currently going through. The world is currently going through a financial crisis like never before
and many believed that Formula 1’s existence might be under threat as well.
But good old Bernie doesn’t realize that. It is like an obsession that Bernie just cannot get over and it seems as though he is not going to give an ear to whatever anyone has to say about his current thoughts. I guess it is because of the reason that he
is becoming a stubborn old grandpa who just cannot stand the youth giving better ideas than him and stealing the spotlight.
FIA president Jean Todt also had to break the ice and state that an African Grand prix is impossible before 5 years. Bernie should realize the fact that it is just not possible to introduce so many venues all of a sudden and he would have to take one step
at a time.
Maybe he is afraid of the fact that since he is getting so old, he might not live to see all these venues or maybe he is just too selfish to let anyone else come up with these ideas after he retires. Either way, he should realize what the bigger picture
is and that Formula 1 cannot withstand such a burden at this point.
Yes, Formula 1 is trying to revolutionize the world in terms of oil consumption, pollution, etc as a solution against global warming. But it seems that Bernie does not want that money to go anywhere else and he wants to utilize it somewhere within the sport
rather than save it or do something useful with it. All these tracks and venues will come with due time and haste will make things go wrong.
What Bernie believes is that he is going to make Formula 1 more entertaining and modern but he does not understand that it is not that easy to replace the current venues with these ones so easily. More than half of the track races are expected to take place
until 2014/2015 according to their respective contracts. How can Bernie replace those tracks with any of the new venues? The only solution Ecclestone will be able to come up with is to increase the length of the Formula 1 season.
I doubt the teams or the drivers will allow this as the current Formula 1 calendar contains 19 races and the 2011 season will hold 20 races. Most of the drivers and teams have already stated that a 20 race season will be more than enough and that should
be the limit. But stubborn Bernie does not realize this.
It is time that the Formula 1 universe decide to stand with him or against him and at least criticize what he is doing. What Jean Todt did was a brave move but that won’t be enough to stop Bernie.
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