Ecclestone offers $500,000 to whistleblowers

05/11/2012

In a move that some might see as somewhat ironic, Bernie Ecclestone is offering a half million dollar reward to anyone who blows the whistle on F1 cheats.

Pushing hard for a £156m ($250m) budget cap, the F1 supremo is offering the reward in a bid to flush out those that attempt to circumnavigate it, should it be introduced.

Whilst offering a $500,000 reward to potential whitleblowers, Ecclestone reveals that the cheats, and team owners and team principals will be held accountable, would be fined in excess of $1m. (See what he did there?)

"My budget cap allows them to spend what they like on anything within that limit," Ecclestone told the Daily Express.

"People within teams know if something is going on," he added. "An incentive of $500,000 might encourage people to speak out.

"I also want team principals and team owners to sign a contract which would hold them personally responsible for cheating and they would have to pay the fines themselves. It makes people think."

Of course, some might see it as ironic that Ecclestone, himself at the centre of the long running Gribkowsky scandal, is offering a reward in an attempt to flush out the cheats.

Then again, whatever happened to the $1m reward Max Mosley offered, whilst FIA president, back in 2003 as part of his zero tolerance charter in terms of cheating. We never heard it mentioned during the infamous Spygate saga just a few years later.