Ecclestone moves to Istanbul to distance himself from F1 sale rumours
From ANI
London, May 8: Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s commercial rights holder, flew to Istanbul to distance himself from a possible sale of motor sport’s blue-riband series to Rupert Murdoch’s media group, News Corporation.
Ecclestone has earlier denied rumours that Formula One will be sold to News Corp, and said that Murdoch will not buy F1.
“Actually Murdoch is trying to buy the rest of their shares in Sky and they have been doing that for three years so they have got plenty of practice in doing things and not succeeding,” The Guardian quoted Ecclestone, as saying.
“Nothing has changed. It is normal foreplay before these things happen,” he added.
Eleven members of Fota, the Formula One Teams’ Association will meet to discuss the implications of the recent interest shown by News Corporation and Exor, owners of Fiat and Ferrari.
The meeting will be followed later by other four biggest players in the paddock – Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.
The Fota chairman Martin Whitmarsh said the teams need to work together.
“We have got to work with the commercial rights holder and the governing body to ensure we make this sport interesting as a piece of global entertainment and not spend our energies fighting each other,” said Whitmarsh.
Copyright Asian News International/DailyIndia.com