I've said from the start that this is only a tiny part of the problem, and that the key problem is rather CVC. Dieter Recken put it recently that if CVC wasn't around leeching half of the revenues, that the issues of governance would probably go away. Ed Gorman at the times characterised it the other way, that if Mosley went the problems with the financial sideo f things would go away.
That is dead wrong.
Finally in the media the debate seems to be turning to the way CVC and Bernie _exploit_ the sport. While it would seem the commercial arrangements ought to be largely transparent to teams and fans it has not been that way. The races in markets where fans exist have lost out because they run as commercial operations - not government sponsored propaganda events. Governments, in countries of mostly dubious attraction, looking to recover their investments slate us, fans, with ticket prices. They also gouge a bit more from accommodation. The few remaining events in Europe and Australia are now so expensive that you cannot justify at all taking your family.
Many of us grew to love F1 by going to races. You can be interested in something you see on TV, but it takes the whiff of brake dust and petrol along with the almighty roar to truly become a disciple of the sport. Bernie and CVC have squeezed fans in the heartlands for the best part of a decade and the result has been the aging of the population of F1 fans.
Most fans are those who grew to love F1 before the mid 90s, that means the demographics of the sport are skewed. Young people i.e. 14-24 simply haven't grown to love the sport like those of us a bit older.
Anyway Mark Hughes turned his attention to CVC in the times today and there's a wonderful paragraph which sums up my feelings:
http://www.timesonli...icle6543225.ece
At the most fundamental level, the teams question whether the rights were ever Ecclestone’s to sell. “The original arrangement was that the rights were leased to Foca,” said a team principal. “At some stage in the 1990s they transferred to Bernie’s own company. It was one thing being raped by Bernie, but it’s another being raped by a venture capital company, one that owes many of the teams a lot of money and whose value has plummeted recently. We don’t like how CVC uses this sport as a short-term cash cow with no thought or care about promoting it and investing in its future.” This has become a bigger issue for the teams with the advent of the credit crunch and their difficulty in raising sponsorship money from external sources. While the FIA has been attempting to impose cost controls as a solution, the teams — faced with considerable difficulty in downsizing in a short time frame — see cutting out the “vulture” that is removing half its income as a preferable solution.
What CVC is doing *is* rape, it is the rape of a sport all of us here love. And for as much of an issue that Mosley is, I think ridding Grand Prix racing of these pinstripe vultures is the best outcome from any breakaway.