Ecclestone: The Man Who Owned Formula 1

There would be no F1 without the genius of Mr Ecclestone. So Mr Ecclestone thank you for your wonderful life's work. Hopefully your successors don't mess up.

My Dad always likes to tell this story about how in 1972, Bernie Ecclestone (Brabham owner), came nosing around in the BRM pits. My Dad told him to "F*** off !". Bernie went to the Team Boss and said "Your mechanic just told me to f*** off !". To which the Team Boss said "And did you ?". 😀

Ecclestone's rise and rise of story would make a great TV mini series. But ffs don't let netflix make it. Like him or not. he had charisma in bucket loads. And his story is hella interesting.

F1 wouldnt be what it is today, for better or worse because of him. He definitely did a lot for the sport. But its like making a deal with the devil. His motivations were always the priority. Hes definitely done some things to hurt the sport as well. Appreciate what hes done, but with always with a pinch of salt.

You missed the very start of his career when at 16 years old he worked in a lab in a gasworks in south east London, managed by my grandfather. Eventually my grandfather had to fire him for stealing wheelbarrows full of coal from the plant. From there he went on to deal in motorcycle parts.

The way I see it: Without Bernie Ecclestone, there would have been at least one other (probably several) formula series that would have filled that gap and provide top-notch racing, and probably a more healthy situation for motorsports as a whole. The drive for that was clearly there in the 1970s, just look at the success of Formula 3/2 and the lower-end series like Formula Vee, Formula Ford in the 70s... It was a more diverse and open landscape, with pilots often switching vehicles and simply taking part in lower race classes just for the fun, or switching between formula and touring cars, or even taking part in Rallye - guess how exciting that must have been; when Jochen Rindt or Jim Clark did that, they also didn't always win, as other people had more experience with their local track and the lower-class cars - so there was the very real chance that an upcoming talent beats a reigning F1 champion in a fair competition! However, what the little guy here did was basically lock everyone in who wanted anything to do with F1 by successively exclusive contracts or ever-increasing influence in their core business, and in particular take advantage of good-natured guys who just wanted to race or run such race events - there is just about no way to make money by hosting an F1 event as a track, they are all getting basically extorted by F1 with the exception of Monaco, after also having been forced by F1 to do costly remodelling that doesn't work for anything else but F1 events. Similar situation for private teams, it's next to impossible to do well financially unless you have a very very big supporter paying the bills for years (and even then, probably not much more than breaking even). The situation Mr. Ecclestone was very "helpful" in creating was the illusion of shared success, basically sweettalking people into exploding costs that simply weren't sustainable on it's own, and which benefitted no motorsports application other than F1. While at the same time defrauding people left, right and center (and I do mean defraud, as in not paying agreed-upon millions just because he figured he could get away with it). His contribution was mostly rules that benefitted not motorsports as a whole but only his brand F1 - including killing off other "competing formats" such as Group C racing. Incidentially, that is a rather common theme I hear - perhaps you can prove me wrong, but it often seems to me that F1 people have no interest whatsoever in any other form of motorsports, so other classes suffering simply doesn't affect them (except of course through indirect ways such as fan-favorite mainstay tracks closing down and/or getting replaced in the calendar with some sterile promotional tool track, as the "normal" racetracks simply cannot pay their bills through the year). At least that's how it seems at times.

I am Thai and I didn't even know anything about F1 but after the news broke out about Lewis to Ferrari, got me researching the whole past events, scandals and tips of the iceberg stuffs. Thank you for making a video like this it helps me understand more about this beautiful sport.

This might be the best F1 channel that I just discovered

When it comes to safety; It's always better to race again than to never race again. - I met Bernie, and I thought he was a real gentleman.

what an incredibly well made video, how does this not have millions of views

10:53 I don’t think I’ve ever seen Enzo talk on camera

Loving this channel!! I was so heart broken that the race recap channel is so new.. I was ready to binge hundreds of videos but instead you got my sub haha. Keep up the great work!

Bernie is such a legend 🥇

Just recently found your channel. Loving the content. Keep up the great work.🏎️🏁🏆❤️

Before buying the TV rights Ecclestone proposed F1 teams to join the forces and buy it together... they all refused... now with Netflix it will slowly die as another "big brother" type show

Like him or not he is still has the best seasons ever under his rule.

And no mention of all his legal issues. If the German court had found him guilty he had a jet warmed-up and ready to take him to Brazil where he would be safe from extradiction since his new bride was Brazilian.

This Mosley guy seems pretty interesting. I wonder what his dad did 🤔💭

At 14.53 you can see a worker walking under a suspended crane load, kids, never walk onder a load

I'm starting miss that guy can't believe I'm saying that