Ecclestone blames Mosley for new teams’ troubles

2010 F1 season

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The new teams at Sepang

Bernie Ecclestone blames former FIA president Max Mosley for the difficulties faced by the three new teams in 2010.

In the foreword to “The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2010” Ecclestone said:

As for the new teams, their problems weren’t their fault in all fairness. It was really Max Mosley’s fault, telling them they could come in and be contenders for £30 million.

But they’re here now and, provided they don’t walk around with begging bowls, it’s good to have them.
Bernie Ecclestone

The words are in marked contrast to his remarks on them earlier this month when he said: “They do nothing for us, they are an embarrassment. We need to get rid of a few of those cripples.”

He also added words of praise for Mosley’s successor Jean Todt:

Jean Todt is a completely different animal to Max. I had dinner with him the other night and we were talking about it: he’s visited 51 countries this year, so he’s been on a the road a bit.

In fairness, he’s left F1 to get on with it, which is good.
Bernie Ecclestone

Ecclestone is currently recovering following a mugging in London last week.

“The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2010” is published by Haynes. See the F1 Fanatic gifts guide 2010 for more information.

The new teams

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Ecclestone blames Mosley for new teams’ troubles”

  1. Do these quotes shed more light on the real motivation behind the attacks on Ecclestone last week??

    1. What do you mean? That Fernandes, Branson and Kolles attacked him?

      1. No, Mosley and his retinue of She-Wolves of the SS!

    2. This being mostly about money and pushing HRT to get on with the job of securing some backing?

      Or the part where Bernie is all to happy to see Todt letting him do as he wants with FOM, leaving only the teams FOTA to challenge his rule?

  2. Oh Bernie, is it also Max’s fault that you’ve been slagging them off all year?

    He has sort of got a point, it was wrong of the FIA to allow these teams in only to make an about turn and on the budget cap. I still say they have done a fantastic job, particularly Lotus (for being plucky, awesome and having big dreams) and HRT (for not loosing any ground to Virgin despite not upgrading their car the whole season.)

  3. I don’t think that anyone should be blamed for the problems faced by the new teams. Budget cap would be a good thing and kudos to Mosley for trying to implement that but the new teams should have suspected that the likes of Ferrari and McLaren would never agree to it.

    1. And thank god it was not implemented.

      1. In the end though, what did we gain? The big teams were able to out-develop the smaller ones because of having more money and as for a two-tier system, we got that anyway, except the second tier was noticeably inferior. Pay drivers are also having a bigger influence on the driver market than before, as the HRT merry-go-round showed (yes some pay drivers are sponsored because they are good but others clearly aren’t).

  4. The old seems to blame everybody but himself. Was it not the Max who “get things done”? Now he is suddenly to blame for introducing new teams. Arrrgghhh BE!!

    BTW BE, who responsible for the mugging you got?

  5. I agree that this season has seen less FIA interferance in F1 compared to recent seasons, how much of that is down to Max Mosley is open for debate. Jean Todt certainly comes across as more professional and less sceptible to the kind of ‘verbal bull####’ that often blighted Mosley’s reign as president.
    Ecclestone does have a point to a degree, but what makes me laugh is that Bernie has neglected to mention all the times over the years he supported the enept policies of Max Mosley. In 2008, at the height of the sex scandal involving Mosley, Ecclestone’s support was there for all to see.
    I must say I am not exactly shocked by Ecclestone’s comments. Afterall, the F1 paddock is pretty much one of the biggest shark pools in world sports where the ability to eat one’s young is almost encouraged.
    The small teams are needed. Yes they have been, largely hopeless in 2010, but that was to be expected. In my opinion, even if we had had testing this season, teams like Virgin and HRT would still have struggled.
    Over the years, F1 has always had underdog teams that have come into the sport on a wing and a prayer. Just six years ago, the current world champions were fart arsing around the world in the guise of Jaguar. It proves that anything, with the help of a large splash of cash, can be possible.
    With the sport losing Honda and Toyota so dramatically, F1 should be bloody thankfull for these new teams who could have easily invested their money elsewhere. Oh, by the way. I hope your shiner gets better Bernard!

  6. I am surprised Ecclestone has publicly criticised Mosley the way he has, even though he is right.

    The new teams were always going to struggle, they were only granted their place on the grid long after the established teams had already started work on their 2010 cars, add in the uncertainty over the rules and their lack of experience and it really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

  7. Well Bernies comments were about getting HRT to get some decent funding so they could come compete. I’ll agree that they add no value if they stick out a re-hashed dallara chassis with basic wings and limp over the 107% rule (which could be huge at like spa if newey finds something clever :P)

    Finally I dont think the new teams are that slow in historical terms. Just the established teams at this point in time are very close together, so there was a gap down to the new teams. I think if there was only lotus for example we’d of sorta thought “pretty average first season – no points tho”. I am really looking forward to them entering the fray proper next year. Especially lotus and virgin, I can’t see HRT doing too well.

    1. I’d be surprised if any of the new teams can beat an established one next year, F1 just doesn’t work that way.

      But every time someone has a go at HRT and HRT doesn’t just roll over I become their fan just that much more.

  8. Nice to see that despite that attack on him he is back in his old form.

  9. Formula 1: Where the individual’s commentary is only that which supports their own selfish position or denigrates that of the opposition. Truth is relegated to the back row.

    1. When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.
      Marcus Tullius Cicero

  10. Wow 30 mil and you are not able to compete. What does that say about what the sport. I mean comeone I know money runs sports but man I guess to me that sound nuts but I guess if they go the money.

  11. It’s probably more like he finally understands how things went wrong rather than that he truly changed his mind.

  12. Anyone with a bit of imagination could work to provide a rules structure which would allow new teams, or even teams running in the last positions, additional testing time. This would at least allow them to maximize their potential and would not generate huge costs across the grid.

    Oh, and don’t bother to point out the reasons this is not already in place, as I’m very aware of the other, especially mid-field, team’s opposition to such a rules modification.

    The rules are malleable, and they should be written for the long term benefit of the sport.

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