There are a lot of old men in F1, and some middle aged men in roles that a few young 'uns might be eyeing up. Heading into the 2022 season, if F1 exists in anything like its current guise, who will have replaced the following personalities (or any others you can think of) and what will they have achieved during their tenures to date? The Dark Powers Charlie Whiting Bernie Ecclestone Jean Todt Team Principals CVC The Not-so-silent Watchers Commentators Pitlane Reporters Presenters and Pundits Bloggers and Tweeters The Grand Old Gentlemen / Sniping from the Sidelines Jackie Stewart Stirling Moss Niki Lauda Murray Walker
The Dark Powers Charlie Whiting - Rubens Barrichello Bernie Ecclestone - It will still be Bernie trying to strangle the life out of the sport Jean Todt - Mike Hakkinen Team Principals - Horner and Whitmarsh should still be in charge. I'm not so sure about Ferrari, I'm surprised Domenicalli has lasted as long as he has. CVC - Tony Fernandes, after a decade of his sports teams failing he'll just buy the sport out instead The Not-so-silent Watchers Commentators - Chandhok Pitlane Reporters - Ted Kravitz Bloggers and Tweeters - Benson will still be going strong The Grand Old Gentlemen / Sniping from the Sidelines Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine Murray Walker - There'll only ever be one Murray
Well obviously Bernie Ecclestone will be replaced in 2022 by Tamara Ecclestone, purely on merit and because of her undoubted proven F1 management prowess, it goes without saying. Jean Todt will be replaced by Michael Schumacher, who will in 2022 have come back to the role after a 3-year retirement since the end of the 2017 season. Can't agree with absolutelyglorious that Fernandes will have bought CVC - his Kingfisher airline is bust in all but name after haemmoraging cash by the bucketful so he may be a bit short of readies. Old buffers sniping from the sidelines - Sir Frank Williams, Baron Coulthard of Silverstone, Sir Eddie Jordan and a grey-haired Jake Humphrey OBE, what with Rubens Barrichello being too busy with his new race seat in go-karts. And all of us, of course !!
What occurred to me was that we might see Adrian Newey replace Charlie Whiting in a poacher-turned-gamekeeper scenario. I did see this thread as a bit of fun but that's one area where I think the sport could be improved. Of course, Newey likes his sailing and racing and I could imagine he'd see Whiting's job as one big headache but there'd be few who could pull the wool over his eyes. In fact, Charlie's probably feeling a bit exhausted already so perhaps we should lobby for Adrian to replace him next year. Or this year. Ecclestone surely can't last another ten years? David Campbell's gone now and it may well turn out, depending on what happens with Lehman Brothers' shares and then what CVC decides to do, that most of Ecclestone's responsibilities will be delegated to a department in a corporation. Whether Briatore still hopes to get in there must be a concern. I haven't yet watched the QPR documentary that he apparently makes a twat of himself in but surely a responsible owner would not appoint him. Ofcom is widening its investigation into the Murdoch 'fit and proper persons' test but, although it would be a travesty, I can't see them being forced out of BSkyB and News Corp is apparently still working on its bid for F1. Personally I'd have to turn my back on F1 altogether if the Murdochs owned it but I wonder who'd they'd put in place to promote it? I'm not aware that Tony Fernandes' AirAsia is in trouble. Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines is in turmoil and this may have a knock-on effect for Force India but I can't see it affecting Tony Fernandes's finances. Could he afford F1, though? *cough* Carlos Slim *cough*. Me, I'd like to see Ron Dennis in the list somewhere. Not quite sure where though.
All I hope is that someone not named Rupert Murdoch (or by extension News International) gains control when Bernie dies. Carlos Slim is a good shout. If I'm not mistaken, Bernie worked his way up by buying into and running Brabham. With Sauber being where they are, he could do the same. Would that be a good thing or not? I'm not sure. Newey to replace Whiting... can't really see it happening, I think the teams would be prepared to offer him all sorts of silly money to stay as a poacher rather than a gamekeeper, as genji put it. Domenicali will have been replaced as Ferrari team principal, that much is obvious I think... Horner to replace him?
Let's just hope that Bernie croaks before singularity is cracked, otherwise we've got the little troll for eternity.
It's just occurred to me that 10, (20, even 30 or 40) years from now Bernie will still be in full control of F1, and still being collared by Martin Brundle in his pre-start gridwalk. Let's face it he sold F1 to CVC for $4billion but although trousering all that cash he still owns it, so then the Devil comes a-knocking he'll just do the same sale-and-leaseback sort of deal for his eternal soul and thus carry on at the head of F1 foras long as he likes! And with Bernie's skill the Devil will still think he got a good deal.
