Ecclestone says Horner would be “ideal” successor

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In the round-up: Bernie Ecclestone prefers Red Bull team principal Christian Horner as his successor when he gives up in charge of F1.

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Bernie Ecclestone names Christian Horner as favoured successor (The Guardian)

“Christian would be ideal. I would be happy to hold his hand. We could have a transitional period. It needs someone who knows the sport.”

Horner cool on replacing Ecclestone (BBC)

“It’s very flattering but my focus is fully on this team and is for the foreseeable future.”

Alonso and Massa against 2014 car weight limit change (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were the two most vocal opponents when the GPDA discussed the matter of raising the 2014 car weight limit today.”

Confident Russian teenager Kvyat quick in the wet (Reuters)

Christian Horner: “Considering his age and experience, to get in a grand prix car in the wet round here, on a track he’s never seen before, and do what he did was very impressive.”

Pirelli: no 2014 tyre testing no setback (Autosport)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “The reason we wanted it is that we wanted to do some benchmarking against this year’s tyres with the new compound and new structure on the current car, just to give us a scaling.”

Brawn visits Ferrari in Brazil (Sky)

“Brawn’s position at Mercedes beyond the end of the season is currently at the centre of fevered speculation and TV images capturing him leaving a meeting in ex-colleague Domenicali’s office at Interlagos have stirred the rumour mill further.”

Here and there (Toro Rosso)

Daniel Ricciardo: “I was at his first race in Melbourne back in 2002. I recall it being very exciting to see an Australian doing what he was doing. Looking back it seems crazy: fifth in a Minardi. I guess the modern equivalent would be a Marussia doing this same this weekend.”

Brazilian Grand Prix – day one (MotorSport)

“To give an idea of the importance of the test in a similar situation last year Force India put a great deal of effort into trying the 2013 prototypes. In just one session the team learned some very interesting things, which led to a renewed focus over the winter on making the new tyres work, and did much to define the direction the car was taken.”

Comment: As Sebastien [sic] Vettel cruises to a fourth World Championship, the lack of a contest spells the death of Formula One (The Independent)

“The skill and courage of the drivers is beyond question. You try covering 3.5 miles, lap after lap, posting times within a tenth of a second. But none of this skill is conveyed to the viewer.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Words of encouragement for anyone disappointed about Mark Webber’s impending departure from F1:

Things aren’t that bad with Webber leaving! We can see Kimi fighting Alonso and see if Ricciardo can take the fight to Vettel or not, and see how Massa performs at Williams. It would be good if Caterham and Marussia could be a lot closer to the midfield, and of course Heikki Kovalainen going back to Caterham would be great news for F1. We can see whether Daniil Kyvat has what it takes to beat Vergne, and the new 2014 regulations mean that nobody knows what will happen next year!
Ivan (@Wpinrui)

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20 comments on “Ecclestone says Horner would be “ideal” successor”

  1. I’m certainly not a fan of his but I actually agree that Horner would probably do a good job. He certainly knows the sport and I think that he would actually fight for it.

    1. I agree that he knows the sport, and I think he’s an integral part of Red Bull’s success. however, I would be hesitant to say that Horner would do a good job. Outside of his role in Red Bull I know very little about the man, and it’s impossible to say how such a position of power as well as huge political influence would affect him or how he would wield such power and influence.

      What kind of successor would he be? No-one can know for sure. Bernie has had his fair share of criticisms, but F1 by and large has worked and grown under his hand. He’s a tough act to follow for anyone.

      1. The problem is, what are the other choices? Given the circumstances, personally I can’t think of anyone better. I think Horner would fight for whats best for the sport. That is not to say, that the relationship with CEO and others teams would remain the same. I am not sure if there would be any favouritism, but I doubt it. If Ecclestone likes him, thats good enough for me.

      2. I don’t think his job at RBR is enough to say he’ll do well in Bernie’s clothes. Even my cat can do well in his position given that car and Vettel at the wheel…

    2. I agree, Horner is very good at defending it’s employers interests, even if that means deceiving everyone else.

    3. I would say Martin Whitmarsh also could do a good job

    4. I must say that I completely disagree with Horner being the right guy, apart from Bernie liking him. Here is why:

      1. He represents the richest team in the sport which is dominant. That means that there will be doubts over his loyalties for a very long time to come.
      2. Horner doesn’t even keep on top of his own team, with Vettel ignoring his TO, Marko saying and doing what he wants, and Horner all too often backing off and having to turn around and agree with Marko, and Drivers talking with the big boss behind his back (Webber with Mateschitz about his Porsche career), how does that qualify him for survival in the pit of 11 formula 1 teams and the FIA?
      3. I really do see Horner is well respected, or even feared, by many on the grid, despite being the Red Bull team, something that will hurt. He will never be able to agree on deals by a handshake, like Bernie does all too often.
      4. I think that with RBR pulling out of FOTA first, and with the team starting to say they do not feel bound by the RRA, despite Horner agreeing with its terms (because it wasn’t signed by Didi), the team set a lot of bad blood, and that also rubs off on Horner as not being one who stands by what he says.

  2. I think this is good news. I believe Horner would do a good job.

  3. Sweet donut today from Hamilton. I think he was sick of Vettel being the only one doing them.

  4. I’ve heard or read earlier today that Alonso and Massa found the 2014 Ferrari very hard to drive in the simulator. Could it be they (or Ferrari) find the weight to be an issue there?

    1. Any advantage is an advantage! They are both drivers on the smaller end of the scale. Maybe Ferrari already know part of their package is a dud, so any advantage that can be retained is worth keeping. But that means there are less challengers for Vettel…

  5. Brawn would be a valuable asset to any team. And to be frank, Ferrari lack a true strategy leader. Brawn would be the best for that. There have been far too many stuff-ups concerning strategy with Alonso and Massa in recent years – with points unnecessarily lost due to poor race and pit-stop strategy decisions. 2010 is a classic example. I don’t know who in Ferrari makes those decisions, but I blame Domenicalli as it’s his job to recognise mistakes and make changes. But no, Ferrari just continued with one mistake after next. But I am curious why Ross would seek a return to Ferrari; I would have thought that he would be ready to retire by now.

    1. Ross Brawn knows everybody of influence in F1 and has worked with a lot of them so I wouldn’t put much credence in rumours that begin with a visit to another team, he could have been discussing the proposed weight limit increase or maybe he just wanted a decent cup of coffee.

  6. Hard to imagine why Horner, or anybody in their right mind, would want the job.

  7. The Vortices of RB9 Could be in RB10 too

    I never seen that much stable and tight Votrex

    1. http://i.imgur.com/Mkshjgy.gif

      I don’t know why Links aren’t working

  8. Oh sure… bring Horner on…. Then we´ll never get to see another team win a championship ever. This is ludicrous. Oh and before anybody hates on me, remember what they said when Todt got to the FIA! Has he helped Ferrari? No. Would Horner do the same? I personally doubt it!

  9. Brawn visits Ferrari in Brazil (Sky)
    “Brawn’s position at Mercedes beyond the end of the season is currently at the centre of fevered speculation and TV images capturing him leaving a meeting in ex-colleague Domenicali’s office at Interlagos have stirred the rumour mill further.”

    On this day in F1
    And happy birthday to Ross Brawn who is 59 today.

    Mystery solved :-D !

  10. ROFLMAO! I cant believe that people are still falling for Bernies games. All he is doing is throwing it out there to see whats the lie of the land and more importantly who would be happy to see him go. Christian knows precisely whats going on hence the guarded and precise response, he’s taken the compliment but he’s not going to fall for the ploy.
    Bernie has no intention of stepping down and based on what I have seen he will win the case. We will know soon enough anyway and I expect there are still a couple of twists still to come but none of them will remove Mr. B.

  11. We all know how good Christian Horner is, under his leadership Red Bull become a dominant force in the sport, it is true that the major part of that success is due to the talent of some figures like Newey , Prodromo, Marshal …… but they were all managed by CH, so theoretically a young and a successful Christian Horner would be the ideal replacement of Bernie Ecclestone,but there is a BUT and a very big BUT
    The suggestion of promoting Christian Horner came from that greedy man himself !!!! Ecclestone !!!! and the only thing that the sport need in this critical time is the total removal of Ecclestone policy that is killing the sport and has only an interest of making the maximum profit out of it, we know how much close is the relationship between Ecclestone and all the Red Bull environment (dietrich mateschitz, Ch, Sebastian Vettel), there were rumors that suggest that CH was used to pass all what happens in the FOTA meetings to Bernie Ecclestone so promoting him would only make even more damage to the sport because he will guarantee the success of the business of Bernie Ecclestone and his partners for a long period of time, he is just 40 years of age

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