Bernie Ecclestone thinks F1 is too democratic.
“The trouble is that formula one today is too much of a democracy. And I’m a little bit against democracy,” the sport’s so-called ‘supremo’ told the Spanish F1 broadcaster Movistar. For years, the now 84-year-old Briton ruled formula one hand-in-hand with the similarly autocratic Max Mosley.
But today, the FIA is led by the much more appeasing Jean Todt. “The difficulty is getting everybody to agree,” Ecclestone said in the interview. “If we could get the FIA to agree, we could do whatever we felt was the right thing to do.” He despises the current ‘power unit’ engine formula, but he also thinks the rules regime in other areas has made the sport “too clinical”. “‘Do not do this, you can’t do that’,” Ecclestone charged.
He said F1 should become more of a “driver championship”, as at present the cars are too much under the control of engineers on the pitwall. “The funny thing is that the drivers don’t like it. They want to be in charge,” said Ecclestone. And when asked if he would welcome Mosley back to the paddock, Ecclestone answered: “It would be nice to have Max back again. I think most people would.”
Finally, Ecclestone admitted he has been surprised by how much Honda has struggled since returning to F1 this year, saying he knows both the Japanese carmaker as well as McLaren are “not happy”. “Everybody thought the Honda engine would be fantastic,” he said, “including me. And I know absolutely, 100 per cent, Fernando (Alonso) is not happy.”
