Bernie Ecclestone, the man so mistakenly referred to by a Hollywood TV show as “the founder of Formula One”, has reinforced his previous tough stance on the Australian Grand Prix, a week before the start of the 2008 season in Australia.
Ecclestone said: “The only way the race could stay in Melbourne, or anywhere else in Australia, is if it is staged during the night so that the public in Europe can watch it.
"At the moment, it is ridiculous that people are asked not to sleep in order to see it live. That can't carry on.
"The alternative is to pull the race completely from Australia. I've spoken to (new prime minister) Kevin Rudd and he's told me it would cost too much to re-stage the race, so I guess that's it. We won't be going to Australia for too much longer.”
Singapore will host F1’s first ever night race on 28th September 2008. More Asian countries are expected to follow suit in order to better accommodate European daytime viewing times. It is well-known that Bernie is a one iron man who rarely ever backs down when it comes to negotiating for F1, however, no one can say for sure if these threats will be carried out or if they are just a public negotiating tactic on the part of Ecclestone.
Bernie: We won't be going to Australia for too much longer
F1fanatics / Bernie Ecclestone
Comments
radmeister
March 9, 2008 8:37 PM
They should bring F1 to Romania, i am sure they could accommodate them and pay a nice price to bring it there. Screw australia its too far from the world. I say either Romania or Russia.
Joe_Limon
March 9, 2008 8:55 PM
lol radmeister, you just keep getting better, "Screw australia its too far from the world". As to where F1 should go, with the amount of money involved in F1, it would be cool if they could get a hold of a old air craft carrier, gut it and make the track transfer between the upper and lower decks. They would have something so new exciting which would attract new viewers. And a boat track could go between many different coastal cities fueling up, and earning lots of money at each city wanting to have formula for a week without having to restrict busy city streets.
unknown
March 9, 2008 9:07 PM
have you ever been to romania? of all places! mind as well have it in poland too.
radmeister
March 10, 2008 3:58 PM
Yeah i've been to Romania. There are ghettos in every country probably the only country where everyone is rich and has a nice house is Monaco. There are some parts of romania that would be great to host F1, of course you wouldn't host it in a gypsy village the same way you wouldn't host it in Harlem in the USA.
UKBloke
March 9, 2008 8:51 PM
You gotta be kidding me? Force Australia to run it over night so the viewers in Europe can watch it? Anyone heard of PVRs or SKY+, maybe even a VCR? I would've thought being part of F1 was Bernie would've known about such latest technology... He may be the "iron man" of F1, but this is just petty arrogance and I for one wish he'd just shut up. If F1 is supposed to be a world class sport, let's keep the world involved, not impose petty restrictions on them because they don't live in mainland Europe. Perhaps the ultimate goal is to host every race in Ecclestone's backyard - that way we can call it weekend at Bernies.
Joe_Limon
March 9, 2008 10:08 PM
you can't really blame him... he is old after all... probably not into the latest tv trends or even old ones like vcr recording, I know my grand parents/parents don't know how to record shows... even on vhs
BlackEagle
March 9, 2008 10:17 PM
I think that they are worry that people will not watch it live and TV sponsors do not like that.
UKBloke
March 9, 2008 9:21 PM
Yeah, but it's not like there isn't enough advertising around the track and all over the cars themselves. You won't lose all that exposure simply by skipping through the commercials...
garyk1
March 9, 2008 11:52 PM
I like watching motor racing not a circus, Bernie you have stuffed F1 thats why I watch A1
dafool
March 10, 2008 1:19 AM
I couldn't have said it better myself. Over here in Aus nearly all the races are on around midnight (with the exception of Malaysia, Japan and China). I guess now all the races will be at midnight.*sigh*
ShAwNeX
March 10, 2008 1:54 AM
The comments this guy makes are absolutely ridiculous. That's probably why he isn't the founder of F1 ... LOL. The whole point of staging international races is to promote F1. So according to this guy F1 is for Europeans only and must be scheduled for the European time zone, I gues he didn't take into consideration that people from the host country also want to see the F1 and if the races were scheduled according to the European time zone then maybe the people of the host country have to stay up till ridiculous hours to watch it. I reckon all non-European countries should pull out.
daviepops
March 10, 2008 2:07 AM
It's kind of sad that an old has been like Bernie just doesn't cut it in the 21st century ... surely he is already well past his "use by date" ... F1 is supposed to be a world sport now, it seems poor old Bernie wants to turn it back into F Europe instead of F1 ... maybe he just needs to tuck his tired old body snugly into bed earlier and earlier these days because he can't cope with a lte night once a fortnight ... zzzzzzzz Bernie
davethepetrolhead
March 10, 2008 7:35 AM
Maybe the Silver Dwarf could hold the Monaco GP at night so the people in the southern hemisphere don't have to sit up all night.
davethepetrolhead
March 10, 2008 7:42 AM
Maybe the silver dwarf could hold the Monaco GP at night so people in the southern hemisphere could watch it.
catch22
March 10, 2008 8:19 AM
F1 is and will remain a European event. no matter what... Top teams + majority of viewers (UK + Germany) are in Europe so Bernie is right (I also hate him :)). We won't see any more races in US as well since the interest in to F1 is not as high as expected...
Michael-Heinrich
March 10, 2008 9:43 AM
Melbourne at night is really beautiful as anyone been in the New Year’s Eve celebration would tell you: put the race in the city centre is going to be fascinating! Not only Singapore, but Japan, Malaysia and China should all do night races, think about the night scene in Tokyo and Shanghai!
Bristol411S3
March 10, 2008 9:44 AM
Don't read too much into this. Bernie says what suits him to try and improve his negotiating position. It wasn't that long ago he said F1 would move out of Europe because of the EU's ban of tobacco advertising.
The Mail is not a reliable source of anything other than chip wrapping.
lucifa
March 10, 2008 2:13 PM
hes just trying to get a better negotitating position... probably a good tactic, but anyone who agrees with him is what we call down under a "racist tosser". the host country should be able to see it during the day as would be the right of that country, surely? any of you in the "civilised" part of the world heard of cable/satellite/foxtel tv? or you know maybe just NOT watch it live? just have the same footage with the same ads shown 8 hours later? those of us in the "colonies" have just as many rights as you do, bernie.
radmeister
March 10, 2008 3:54 PM
F1 is about money and what he is saying makes perfect sense, why accommodate the australians when they don't even provide enough fans to pay for the bottle of champagne for the podium stand? Financially it doesn't make sense to force millions of fans in europe to stay up at night or record it for 60,000 ausies. Majority wins in this case.
Rob_Wilson
March 11, 2008 1:45 PM
Albert park is a great track, i hope they do keep the Australian GP.........it is good, i dont mind watching it in the early hours of the morning, that is what F1 is about!!!, if you are a true fan that will not bother you.
some_american
March 12, 2008 11:11 PM
Well, haven't we got ourselves a mess, here? I've read all the arguments about Bernie, Australia, schedules, euro fans vs. everywhere-else-in-the-world fans, and in my opinion it's more a question of what does F1 stand for in this day and age? Money or Racing? Or could it, in some maniacal way, be both? To answer that question, I'd say it looks entirely revolved around money. Europe, with your new and wonderful EU, have once again climbed the way up to that economic throne of your's (you know, the one that we Yanks had been sitting on, not too long ago) and you are now the richest continental land mass on the globe. Yet, still the second smallest in surface area, or is it the smallest? I can't remember, but it must appear to someone else that human history is just one big cycle that is repeating itself right now: the rich start getting richer, making the poverty gap wider, causing all sorts of problems for those of us who don't have the financial means to break from such power and control, then after lots of time slowly sinking downward, the majority of the population, which are far less wealthy than those on top, begin taking the rich down with them.
idk, maybe Bernie IS just looking out for the sport and finds that night races are a jolly good time for everybody. Or some made-up bulls@%t like that.
coffee_boss
March 14, 2008 1:05 AM
Is it that hard for the europeans to get up early or stay up late for one day of the year ?
we have to get up at 4 am to watch their sports all year so why cant these people get up early for once in their lives to watch a few races.
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