Bernie Ecclestone’s way was never going to suit the new driving force behind F1 as Chase Carey steps in

There was not a trace of dust or a fingerprint on the vast, glass desk where a foot-high pile of official papers was neatly placed on one corner. Bernie Ecclestone put his hand on the pile and sighed: “No one else would want to bother with this much detail.”

There was never a truer word from a chief executive of a £1billion-a-year corporation. No other head of a conglomerate with business interests stretching from Singapore to Texas would involve himself in the minutiae that would usually be left to fawning acolytes and right-hand men.

But Formula One is a reflection of everything Ecclestone. For almost 40 years, Ecclestone guided, bullied and cajoled a bunch of weekend amateurs into one of the slickest shows on the sporting planet. On the way, he made a fortune — and so did many of them.

But it was at this same glass desk of his Knightsbridge office Monday evening that Ecclestone took a conference call that ended it all.

Chase Carey, a quietly-spoken, heavily-moustachioed representative of Liberty Media, the new owners, came up with a typically American solution — to offer Ecclestone the position as chairman emeritus.

Ecclestone is wary of an honorary title that rings hollow for a man used to ruling every aspect of his domain.

Ecclestone knew it was coming, though. He felt it in his bones when he discovered that Donald Mackenzie, the chairman of CVC Capital Partners, the private equity business based in The Strand who took control of F1 in 2006, had been negotiating with Liberty, a massive US media company, behind his back.

THE ISSUES FOR CAREY TO FIX

• Negotiate a new concorde deal
  The commercial agreement that binds the teams, the FIA governing body to his Liberty business as commercial rights holder is up for renewal in 2020. This will be a tortured process with the leading teams scrapping with the smaller.
  

• Appease Ferrari
  The Scuderia has traditionally received an honorary bonus worth as much as £80million a year as the oldest team in the world championship. Ferrari are determined to hold onto it but other teams want it scrapped. Could be Carey’s biggest test.
  

• Silverstone
  It is not just Silverstone squealing with pain at the levels of fees F1 charges for hosting a grand prix. Silverstone has threatened to drop the British Grand Prix after facing a £17m bill for last year. Most circuits are also charged a 10 per cent annual escalator, while it is thought Azerbaijan could be paying £40m.
  

• Social media
  F1 has been the slowest of sports to adapt to the changing world of social media. Falling viewing figures reflect the move to pay-tv, while the sport has failed to engage with fans. That will require a major new structure and manpower to make it work.

When the news of the prospective £6billion takeover burst into the open at the Italian Grand Prix last September, Ecclestone was taken by surprise. In a hurried phone call after the race in Monza, he told me he knew nothing about the takeover because it was all Mackenzie’s doing. Ecclestone had been so perturbed by events that he called his closest associates together that Sunday morning to tell them that he was finished.

Mackenzie and Carey appeared to want to head off a confrontation by offering Ecclestone a three-year contract to stay on as chief executive. His vast experience was vital, they said. Apparently, not any longer and, at 86, even Ecclestone cannot defeat mortality. The Ecclestone way — forged on the streets of south London as a second-hand car dealer — was not the way of corporate America and a reign that saw Formula One grow from tinpot travelling revellers into a sporting series watched by tens of millions around the globe was over.

Carey, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, is the ultimate American corporate man, the right hand of Rupert Murdoch at 21st Century Fox until he joined Liberty to take over Formula One, a sport with roots in the British countryside as deep as an ancient oak tree. Seven of the sport’s 11 teams are based in Britain’s motorsport triangle, from Woking in Surrey in the south to Oxford and then north to Silverstone in Northamptonshire.

Formula One has been the halo, created and directed every step of the way by Ecclestone. Born in Suffolk, the son of a Lowestoft trawlerman, Ecclestone’s infatuation with Formula One started as a not-very-good driver; he failed to qualify for two grands prix in 1958, in Britain and Monaco, in a Connaught he bought second hand.

Then he managed two drivers — Britain’s Stuart Lewis-Evans and Jochen Rindt, from Austria. Both became close personal friends and both died on the racetrack; Rindt is Formula One’s only posthumous world champion, winning the title despite dying at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.

Ecclestone was devastated but emerged again as owner of the ailing Brabham team in 1971. The Ecclestone vision was being formed: the garages were pin-neat and his team was the best turned out in the pitlane. Everything had to be the best but also the cheapest. After winning two world championships with Nelson Piquet, Ecclestone sold the team he bought for £100,000 for $5million (£4m).

By then, Ecclestone was taking the reins of Formula One, negotiating on behalf of his fellow team principals who were happy to allow the diminutive deal maker, just 5ft 3ins, complete the television deals that saw cash rolling through the paddock.

Within a few years, the tented village where drivers hung out with their mates had become the shiny paddock with vast “hospitality centres” worth millions of pounds. The guests lists comprised superstars from film like Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone and John Travolta, while Ecclestone’s personal contacts book includes Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Juan Carlos, the former King of Spain.

But it has been a roller-coaster all the way to the estimated $5billion family trust fund held in Lichtenstein, which bankrolls Ecclestone’s daughters, Tamara and Petra. Numerous trips to the High Court, a corruption trial in Germany and lavish praise for Putin and Hitler was more than many of Formula One’s investors could stand.

Even Carey admitted to me: “I can’t handle Bernie’s one-liners.”

Ecclestone leaves with another cash pile but despite his vast wealth, money was never the driving force. Ecclestone lives for the deal and he has lived for Formula One. Until now.

FORMULA ONE'S KEY PLAYERS

Chase Carey | New F1 Chief Executive

A career media man and a graduate of Harvard Business School, he is credited with building Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox into a global media player. Sporting an impressive moustache, Carey is instantly recognisable but his style has been low key, spending the past few months formulating his plan. He has to rebuild the sport quickly.

Ross Brawn | F1 Sports Director

One of the most successful figures in F1 history. He won world championships at Benetton, Ferrari, his own Brawn GP, which was sold to Mercedes. Manchester-born Brawn, 62, is one of the few men who will have a vision of where F1 should be heading but will have to bang heads together to get results.

Sacha Woodward-Hill | F1 Chief Lefal Officer

Became Bernie Ecclestone’s most trusted aide over the 20 years she has worked in Formula One. Although Liberty Media are keen to hold onto the 46-year-old for her knowledge of F1, she may feel that she owes her loyalty to the man who she helped through some of the most complex legal battles seen in sport.