04/11/2016
NEWS STORY
As Ross Brawn becomes the latest to be mooted as Bernie Ecclestone's replacement, the F1 supremo speaks out.
Even before Liberty Media began the process of buying the sport, various names had been suggested as Bernie Ecclestone's successor once he tires of the job or is called to that great Paddock Club in the sky.
Among them Christian Horner, Sacha Woodward-Hill and Paul Walsh, former chief of drinks giant Diageo.
Since the buy-out got underway, marketing guru Zak Brown has been linked with the role, while only last week the German media claimed that Ross Brawn was being lined up.
Having told Pitpass this week that: "I don't need the money, I don't need the job," and "when I stop enjoying it, when I don't feel I'm needed, I'm gone", Ecclestone has now made it clear that there are no imminent plans for change to the sport's management.
"As far as the company is concerned it stays as it is," he told the official F1 website, "there will be no change.
"There can be different shareholders, and the shareholders that are now coming on board are probably going to be more commercial than CVC were. That is about it."
Asked if there will be any significant changes in the coming year, the response is a resounding: "No!"
Indeed, the Concorde Agreement runs out in 2020, and Ecclestone insists that there can be no changes until then.
"We have an agreement with the teams and that will stay as it is. There will be the usual discussions for the renewal of the agreement with the teams. It is a commercial agreement. Let's see what happens."
Asked if the teams now have too much of a say, he replied: "That has nothing to do with the Concorde Agreement, but with the Strategy Group which I put together to make sure that they were represented.
"The trouble now is that it is probably loading a little bit too much. People that supply the engines have customers that don't want to argue with the supplier, so it's not too democratic. It's a bit loaded the wrong way."