Move over Bernie: Formula One can no longer be a ‘dictatorship’, says new boss Chase Carey
Liberty Media’s takeover values F1 at US$8 billion, but what does it mean for its flamboyant leader?
New chairman Chase Carey said Formula One cannot continue as a “dictatorship”, as speculation grows over the role of long-term supremo Bernie Ecclestone under the sport’s incoming American owners.
Ecclestone has built Formula One into a global powerhouse over the past four decades, but Carey said US mogul John Malone’s Liberty Media now wanted to take it to new heights.
“You cannot make everybody happy all the time, but you’ve got to understand what everybody wants and then find a path,” he told the official F1 website at the Singapore Grand Prix.
“Sure, that is not a task for a committee, as committees tend to become bureaucratic – but there also can’t be a dictatorship – even if probably here they are used to it.”
It indicates an ideological split between American Carey and Ecclestone, 85, who has warned he could walk away if things don’t go his way under Liberty.