F1 pays tribute to Ecclestone... sort of

24/01/2017
NEWS STORY

Such was the lack of acknowledgement we were obliged to take to Twitter.

"Other than Zak Brown at McLaren, the silence from teams following yesterday's historic news is deafening," we tweeted at around 15:00 on Tuesday.

Up until that point, other than Brown's statement - issued around an hour after the Briton's ‘deposing' was officially confirmed - only a handful of drivers had publicly acknowledged yesterday's seismic happenings, none of the teams.

In the hours that followed our tweet, a couple of teams paid tribute to the sport's former supremo, as did the sport's governing body, the FIA.

"The FIA wishes to thank the outgoing CEO of the Formula One Group, Bernie Ecclestone for more than 40 years of dedication to the FIA Formula One World Championship and as a member of both the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council," it read, President Jean Todt subsequently greeting the sport's new owners.

"As Formula One's governing body, the FIA would like to welcome the new CEO, Chase Carey and his entire team to the Championship.

"The whole FIA organisation is looking forward to working closely together, with the common goal of improving and growing the sport further with the support of the highly recognised skills of Liberty Media Corporation in the media and sport domains."

"The Federation remains committed to regulating the FIA Formula One World Championship fairly, safely, and in the best interests of the sport," added the FIA, "as it has strived to do since its inception 67 years ago."

"We must today pay tribute to the role Mr Ecclestone has played in shaping F1 over the last 40 years," said Claire Williams in a tweet. "It wouldn't be the sport it is today without him. F1 constantly evolves & as we move forward into a new era, exciting times are ahead."

"On behalf of everybody at Force India, I want to say a huge 'thank you' to Bernie for making our sport what it is today," added Vijay Mallya of Force India.

And other than a jokey 'fax' from Renault that was it.

No doubt the teams are contemplating how best to say farewell to Bernie and hello to Liberty in their own way, perhaps by buying shares, accepting a budget cap, or in Ferrari's case, sharing its historic prize money bonus.

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Published: 24/01/2017
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