Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has a radical idea for shaking up Formula 1 – by making it an all-electric series.
The 87 year-old multi-billionaire – whose previous ideas for shaking up proceedings have included allowing cars to take shortcuts and using sprinkler systems to create random wet races – has said the sport could become a ‘Super Formula E’.
Ecclestone argues that the switch to electric power is inevitable, so the sport’s new owners may as well make the move now before manufacturers pledge their allegiance to the Formula E series. Speaking to The Guardian, he said:
“We still own the name Formula One, we still have contracts with promoters, let’s make different types of cars. Let’s speak to the manufacturers and start a new all-electric F1, a Formula One for the future. You can make cars be like an F1 car and the only thing you would miss would be the noise and I do not believe that people could not come up with something to make more or less the old F1 noise. They [the new owners] would need to have the balls to do it today. I think they will have to do it.”
Bernie didn’t stop there. He said that Ferrari’s threat to quit the sport is real, as Sergio Marchionne “does not do things unless he is serious” adding that he “would hate to see F1 without Ferrari”.
He also had some interesting things to say about Toto Wolff. For some time, Ecclestone has said that Formula One is a ‘crap product’ and seems to point the finger in the Mercedes Team Principal’s direction:
“I blame Mercedes and Toto for putting us in the shit we are in terms of the competition. If they’d given an engine to Red Bull, we’d have three teams for the past three years racing each other.”
As well as all of this, he’s added that Wolff and Alex Wurz are the perpetrators of “that bloody Halo business”, and has called the decision to axe Grid Girls “a little bit cranky”.
Bernie Ecclestone may not be running the F1 show anymore, but he certainly still knows how to make headlines!
