Bernie Ecclestone admits bribery case might end his time in Formula 1 – Formula 1 news
F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone, has admitted that his time in Formula 1 might come to an end if he has to face charges in the Gerhard Gribkowsky bribery case.
“[CVC] will probably be forced to get rid of me if the Germans come after me. It's pretty obvious, if I'm locked up,” Ecclestone told the Telegraph. “They said they had hired a head-hunter to find somebody in the event that I was not going to be there -
if I was going to die or something. It is the normal thing they do to keep people happy.”
Gribkowsky, who is former BayernLB banker, was arrested in January, 2011 over the charges that he took bribe money worth £28 million from Ecclestone during the sale of the Formula 1 series to CVC Capital Partners in 2006.
On the other hand, Ecclestone does not deny giving the money but insists that it was not a bribe. He has said that he paid the money to Gribkowsky so he could avoid the UK tax inquiry. In his testimony, he had stated that if he had not paid the money, the
UK authorities would have made a case which could have been very expensive for him so he paid Gribkowsky to keep him calm and not do silly things. Ecclestone is still being investigated.
Just a week earlier, Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that it was time to end the one man show being run by Ecclestone and he should be considering retirement since F1 needs modern management now.
About the bribery case, the Ferrari president had added that if Ecclestone has to face charges then he himself will be the first one to step down because he has the best interests for F1.
There have been reports of linking other people in F1 to Ecclestone’s role. Sauber F1’s team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn, was linked to the role but she has admitted she has no interest in Ecclestone’s job as she is focused on handling one team presently.
Recently, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, has been reported to replace the F1 boss but Sir Jackie Stewart has said that no one from the paddock will be replacing Ecclestone.
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