Ecclestone’s vision to dump non-performing teams and expand winning teams

THE jackpot race in Abu Dhabi. The crackdown on coded radio messages.

Formula One boss Bernie Eccleston with his wife Fabiana Flosi in Singapore.

THE jackpot race in Abu Dhabi. The crackdown on coded radio messages. The crackdown on coded radio messages being designed to avoid the original crackdown on coded radio messages. Backtracking on the crackdown on all the coded radio messages. They’ve been the complicated brainchilds of Bernie Ecclestone this year. The light bulb moments and the senior moments.

The latest proposal from the 83-year-old boss of Formula One is to give the eight richest teams an extra place on the grid next year at the expense of three spluttering operations being sent to the financial wall. Ecclestone’s vision: the elite versus the elite for the world championship. Super League on wheels. Powerhouse franchises such as Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing would have three drivers instead of two. The total number of drivers in F1 would rise from 22 to 24 as the lemons from Sauber, Marussia and Caterham were thanked for their services.

“It’s always been on the cards that if we lose up to three teams, the others will run three cars,” Ecclestone said before taking his place in the VIP seats at the Singapore Grand Prix.

“I think we should do it anyway. I would rather see Ferrari with three cars, or any of the other top teams with three cars, than having teams that are struggling.

“We’ll know after the next two or three races but it’s being looked at for next year. I’ve been around long enough to know there are always people at the back of the grid but the trouble with these teams, which is normal, is that they think of themselves short-term. You ask about next year but they’re only worried about the next race, which is the problem.”

It costs about £250 million a year to run an elite F1 team. The battlers spend between £50m and £100m. They’re making up the numbers here, there and everywhere. It’s impossible for them to win a grand prix without the same budgetary clout.

“My only concern would be for the people on those teams who would perhaps lose jobs,” Mercedes-Benz’s Lewis Hamilton said at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

“But at the end of the day, the more engineers and mechanics for us.”

Ecclestone was behind the reduction in driver-engineer radio communications in Singapore. And then the relaxing of the reductions for another fortnight. He pushed for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix becoming a jackpot race at the end of the world championship in November.

Instead of the winner receiving 25 points, he’ll get 50. After a lukewarm response, for now, Ecclestone said the bonus race could be heading the way of Sauber, Marussia and Caterham.

“I wanted the double points to be for the last three races,” Eccleston said. “Then people would believe it was possible that somebody else could win (the world title). But everyone said I was mad, so we didn’t do it.”