The passing last week of an 85-year-old American watch-tinkerer-turned-investor is unlikely to have registered on the radars of most Formula 1 fans unless their sporting interests are split between two teams of eleven players knocking about a ball, and eleven racing teams, each entering two drivers.
However, perusal of obituaries published in the wake of the death of Malcolm Glazer (d. May 28, 2014), president of First Allied Corporation and owner of various sports properties - including Manchester United - provides a fascinating study in parallels between the approach adopted by the club and that of CVC Capital Partners, holder of F1's commercial rights lease via Formula One Management.
True, there exists a raft of differences between the world's most valuable football club (at £2.4bn) and the globe's largest continuous sporting block, but the similarities, particularly with regard to their respective commercial philosophies, are such that the current custodians of F1 could do well to study Man U's recent humiliating fall from grace.