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Former Formula One World Driver’s Championship winner Sir Jackie Stewart has called for a change in senior management in the sport.
The ‘Flying Scot’, renowned for creating controversy, and campaigning for driver safety, claims that current Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone wields too much power in Formula One and needs to step aside if the sport is to enter a new, egalitarian age.
Stewart also lambasted FIA President Max Mosley for allowing his relationship with Ecclestone to become too close, and believes that the sport would also benefit from Mosley’s departure.
“Bernie has such power and influence that he could suffocate almost any performer who would dare to suggest that there must be change,” Stewart was quoted as saying by the AFP.
“He has been so used to total control that if you look at his structure you have to ask yourself ‘is there a successor?’ and you would say ‘no’. That is wrong. The commercial reality has to be recognised … and there has be continuity that the ageing process makes necessary.”
While Stewart stopped just short of labeling Ecclestone the Robert Mugabe of Formula One racing, he didn’t hesitate to take a pot-shot at the distribution of Formula One revenue amongst the competing teams.
According to Stewart a disproportionate portion of the sport’s revenue goes into the coffers of the FIA and senior management, whilst teams are left footing the bill for expensive parts, driver salaries and the massive costs of technological development.
“Nothing is coming back into the sport,” Stewart said. “The financial distribution of Formula One appears to have been sorted out by two people who have directed it in whichever way they have seen fit. Although this has been a significant benefit in some ways, it has also hurt the sport because the balance of contribution within Formula One is absolutely untenable.”
Stewart then took issue with Ecclestone’s decision to virtually pull out of the North American market, which provides sponsorship for tires, oil and fuel. The Scot went so far as to label Ecclestone’s decision to cancel both the Indianapolis and Montreal Grand Prixs as ‘ridiculous’, before lambasting the proposal to replace the points system with a medal system.
“The era of big change is now essential because the sport has grown larger than either the governors or the commercial-rights holders. And that’s just a fact,” Stewart concluded.
“It has taken too long to achieve the things it should have achieved years ago and that other sports have long ago matured to, and other sports have prepared themselves more fully for the opportunities that have come their way.”
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