Ecclestone Plans to Buy Back F1 Stake

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone could buy back Formula One from the banks who control the commercial rights, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The paper quoted Ecclestone, whose family trust still has 25 percent of holding company SLEC, as saying he was willing to re-purchase the remaining shares if teams agreed to commit to the championship until 2015.

The banks hold the 75 percent stake after the failure last year of Germany's Kirch media group.

The existing Concorde Agreement between teams, governing body FIA and rights-holders expires at the end of 2007 and the major carmakers involved in F1 are in talks with the banks about taking a stake while also planning their own series from 2008.

"I believe the family trust would buy back F1 from the banks if all the F1 teams extended until 2015," said Ecclestone, adding he is willing to pay £1 billion (pounds) for the shares.

Brian Powers, director of Ecclestone's family trust, said: "We have made it clear that if, as part of a long-term solution, extra money was needed either in SLEC or to buy the banks out, the trust was willing to do that. But we need a long-term Concorde Agreement in place."

The carmakers' GPWC company groups together Ford, Ferrari, BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Renault. In F1, they control or are partners to Jaguar, Williams, McLaren and Renault.

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, who runs the World Championship winning company owned by Fiat and wants the teams to control Formula One's revenues, said in a separate interview that Ecclestone had wanted too much for himself in the past.

Ecclestone, a former team owner himself, created the commercial success of Formula One and built it into a billion dollar business before selling off stakes in 1999 and 2000.

Excellent Job

"Bernie has done an excellent job transforming F1 but he has now dramatically changed the picture. It's his biggest mistake. He wanted too much for himself," he said in an interview conducted last week.

"As a manager he got more than the teams because he was good, but now the car manufacturers are not prepared to fund the banks, they prefer to have it in their own pockets. Without us in 2008, the banks will own 100 percent of nothing. We are preparing a new Championship without banks, without Bernie and with a far bigger cake."

Di Montezemolo said the manufacturers had appointed Goldman Sachs to work with Ecclestone and the banks to find a solution but had also appointed a London headhunter to find a new supremo to run their management company.

The Sunday Times said Toyota was about to join the GPWC and each manufacturer would own a share of the company that could eventually be floated.

"A float is a possibility," said Montezemolo. "It was a mistake not to do it in the past."