6 replies to this topic

[HistoryFan]

Time by time I've read some sentences about Ecclestone was working to rescue F1 in destroying other racing series:

 

1) Group C sports cars: They introduce the F1 rules in the early 90s, that was the ending of Group C. How was Ecclestone involved in that?

 

2) I've also read Ecclestone put his fingers in the split of IRL and CART in the mid 90s. Any details about that?

 

Would that be possible nowadays? I don't think so, as Ecclestone has no influence to other racing series today.

[byrkus]

Also DTM -> ITC, 1995-96. Full flesh German Championship got "blessing" from FIA, and was then discontinued after a single season. Could be coincidence, but who knows. DTM later appeared again in 2000, but without FIA's influence.

 

Isn't it true, that in ca. 1990-1996 (just as those serieses were discontinued) Ecclestone was a FIA vice-President, responsible for racing promotion...?

 

[ExFlagMan]

Wasn't 1990 when the FIA Silhouette Formula (Group E) emerged - vaguely seem to recall BCE had a hand in that under the Procar banner.

[Glengavel]

I was thinking that even BCE can't be blamed for the IndyCar shenanigans but according to Wikipedia, CART got its inspiration from the FOCA F1 reorganisation.

 

But this is interesting, though...

 

http://forums.autosp...ke-me-look-bad/

[Henri Greuter]

Time by time I've read some sentences about Ecclestone was working to rescue F1 in destroying other racing series:

 

1) Group C sports cars: They introduce the F1 rules in the early 90s, that was the ending of Group C. How was Ecclestone involved in that?

 

2) I've also read Ecclestone put his fingers in the split of IRL and CART in the mid 90s. Any details about that?

 

Would that be possible nowadays? I don't think so, as Ecclestone has no influence to other racing series today.

 

 

1)  From what I remember: Ecclestone was involved with the promotion of all FIA series and their TV rights. During the Eighties when GpC really caught on, this was partly the result because of Brian Kreisky and the company Videovision that followed GpC and rallying and their reports were broadcasted on Sky Channel's International Motor Sport. (They also did motor cycles by the way) the moment when Ecclestone took care for the TV rights Videovison was put out of business due to fees that were rediculous, like with F1.

The man who was supposed to promote the other kinds of racing killed off instantly what had been the best co-promotor FIA ever had for both Gp C and rallying appearing on TV.

I am still gratefu that at least the heydays of gp C and Gp B were covered by Videovision so it still can live on as the glory periods they were.

 

Needsless to say, the TV rights Ecclestone did offer (ant the prices to be paid for that!)  appealed to nobody and to make it more appealing Ecclestone `decided` that sportscars had to be more like the F1 format since that was more marketable. At the same time, one thing that did went wrong in the late 80s with Gp C was that though more factories came in, there were no factories selling off cars to privat teams like Porsche had done in the early and mid 80s with 956 and 962, The privateers were forced to run the older cars they had.

However: with factory interest increasing, Ecclestone then combined the two: trying to appeal teams and companies involved in F1 already by suggesting to adopt the same engine formula for sportscars so there could be some transition between F1 to Sportscars. The real idea was of course the opposite: make sure Sportscars were no longer viable and try to make the engine builders within sportscar coming to F1 instead since they had suitable engines that coul be adopted to f1 needs.

And as so often, Ecclestone got it done, exactily as he had planned behind the schemes. Sportscars dead and a potential rival of F1 out of business.

 

 

As for Ecclestone's share in the split between CART and IRL, I think that the share of the France Family (The NASCAR gang) is larger than Ecclestone's share in this. The France's had even more to gain with a total collapse on indycars&CART, the more because they had gained acces to IMS with their own event.

But I am pretty confident that the collapse of CART was more and more than welcomed by Ecclestone. And behind the scenes he may well have been involved as well.

Not so much for his chance to get foot on the ground again in the USA with F1 again but primarily to have F1 getting a better chance to become more popular in those countries that preferred CART over F1, I'll bet you that Bernie must have cursed Nigel Mansell quite a bit for the popularity he brought to CART in 1993. he was one of the forces to get Nigel back into F1 during 1994, not only to make up for the loss of Senna in his own circus but also to weaken the worldwide interest with CART because of Nigel's participation.

 

 

Henri

[HistoryFan]

Thank you!

[robjohn]

Ecclestone was also blamed for the early demise of the World Touring Car Championship in 1987, when he was FISA vice-president and chief of FISA promotional affairs.

Among other things, his decision to levy a registration bond of $60,000 per car for teams wishing to score points "dramatically affected the quality of the fields", as the Autocourse year-end summary put it.

The Autocourse writer concluded: "The paranoia with which the motor racing authorities reacted when it was suggested that GpA was in a position to challenge Formula 1 ensured that the WTCC was doomed from the start."

 

Competition did improve during the year and there were great battles between the BMWs and Sierra-Cosworths. Holdens, Alfas and Nissans were in some races too. Unfortunately TWR didn't support the series. Toyotas ran in the 1600cc class and the marque might have become a top-level contender if the WTCC had continued.

Rob B

Edited by robjohn, 11 May 2015 - 01:50.