Lucky! (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - And Then I was Gone. - full transcript
Someone called me and said I got
somebody that wants to buy Formula One.
I said there's been a few people
who have been trying to do that.
Are they serious, yeh,
we need to talk to somebody.
You want to talk to somebody that owns it.
Probably the best thing to do
because it's not me.
The banks had a majority of the board
and if they had wanted to,
they could have fired me.
But then Donald Mackenzie who ran CVC,
a very successful hedge fund,
wanted to buy Formula One.
And Donald said to me if we buy,
would you stay on and run the company.
Donald said we have to sort the money out.
It's a case of what we could
borrow and the interest rate.
Let's see if we can help them
so I called Fred Goodwin from RBS.
I said Fred, it's a good deal
you're here in my opinion.
So Donald borrowed the money from RBS.
Lo and behold, I had another boss.
But I had a few up to now
so I knew exactly how to behave.
If I ever have.
180 miles an hour around the outside
I've never seen anything like it.
Fourth championship again.
Thank you for all these years.
I've decided together with the team
at the end of this year that
I'm going to retire from racing.
Congratulations on Lewis Hamilton
who's such a wonderful prospect
in British motor sport.
Double winner in GP2 this weekend
winning yesterday and winning today.
You're coming through the ranks now.
Everything you've done from Karting
all the way up you've won in every Formula.
You're very much looks like you're
going to win this GP2 season
if you continue at the pace.
But in your eyes now, you know that you've
got an association McLaren, but where do
you really think you can go from here?
Is it truthfully into a McLaren car
or is it somewhere else
down the Formula One pit lane?
I think anything is possible
as you know, there's possibly
a seat available at McLaren, but
that would be a dream to go
into the second McLaren seat.
But I think my aim at the moment
again is to win the GP2 title,
but then we just have to wait
and see. I don't expect to
jump straight into a McLaren.
I would have thought I would go
into one of the lower teams,
but we'll just have to wait and see.
Putting anyone beside Fernando
could be trouble.
This could be the lead going for Hamilton.
Alonso senses an opportunity.
They are side by side down
the pit straight in Indianapolis.
Hamilton holds his nerve.
Ron, I don't think he ever looked
as Lewis being a number 2 driver.
We come to Grand Prix's with a clear
intention of running our
cars equally, giving both
drivers every opportunity to win.
Hamilton deliberately disobeyed
instructions to let the lighter
Alonso passed to go for pole.
Alonso having to wait.
There's Lewis Hamilton
queueing up behind him.
Now Alonso's not getting on with it.
Only a minute forty to go.
Is he blocking Hamilton here?
That was a little bit naughty I think.
I think he deliberately did that.
That is extraordinary.
A bit of gamesmanship within
his team by Fernando Alonso.
Ron Dennis got out of his chair and was
waving his hands around clearly furious.
Well, the McLaren team try to insist
it was a team error but the stewards,
they decided that they didn't believe
what Alonso had to tell them and
they moved him five places
back on the grid.
People used to ask me, tell me, what do you
actually do? I tell I'm a firefight
because there was always fires.
On the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix,
Ron rang me and he said, I just had Alonso
in the motor home and he says he's got
information. He's threatening to give it to
the Federation. And then Ron said, but
there isn't any information. So I said,
well, so it's an empty threat.
Yes, a completely empty threat.
There's no information.
There's nothing to come out.
I can assure you that if there was
something Max, I would have told you.
The FIA say they have the smoking gun.
Proof that McLaren had used Ferrari
secrets to make their own cars go faster.
The new evidence was an email between
test driver Pedro de la Rosa and race
driver Fernando Alonso, discussing
Ferrari's weight distribution, their
flexible wings, braking system and
pit stop strategy. Ron Dennis insists
there was never any Ferrari intellectual
property actually on the McLaren car.
It's very difficult for me when somebody
I've known 40 years, looks me in the eye
and says Max, I'm telling the truth with
complete sincerity and you believe him.
And it was only when I got the list from
the Italian police 323 I think SMS phone
calls going over a three month period.
There has to be more to this,
this is something serious.
I said to Ron beforehand,
when you come into the meeting,
don't come in with 10 lawyers and a doctor
and whatever. I said, just come to yourself
and simply say the truth, I may have made a
mistake in letting what happened happen.
Probably a big mistake
and I'm sorry about this.
I just want to be very clear at no stage
did I ever say any lie to anybody. I put my
integrity above everything, above this
sport and certainly above Formula One.
In the end, Max got really upset
about the whole thing.
I said, Ron you have polluted the
championship in 2007. You've probably
polluted it in 2008 because we have no way
of knowing what information you're using
for what in your 2007, 2008 cars.
So you better stay out of the championship
until 2009 if you're still around because
that way we know it's completely fair.
In the end, I managed to convince the
World Council at that time, all we needed
to do was take away what they would have
earned normally if they did run for two
years and not ban them because if we banned
McLaren they'd never come back and it was
terrible to lose a team like McLaren.
This gentleman here, front row.
What's your next course of action?
Will you accept the penalty?
Are you going to fight it?
Okay. We believe we've got the grounds
for an appeal, but of course we're going
to wait for the findings of the FIA,
which we believe are going to be
published tomorrow and we'll
consider those carefully.
Pity that we lost Ron.
He's one of the old timers that was really
was behind Formula One from very early on.
Kimi Raikkonen is World Champion of 2007
and the dream is over for Lewis Hamilton.
The pictures that have shocked
the world of motor racing.
Spain is under pressure to act after Lewis
Hamilton was racially abused in Barcelona.
Hamilton is not popular in Spain after
a public falling out with Spanish driver
Fernando Alonso last year.
It's been reported that a few people,
spectators is to sort of black themselves
up a little bit was leaning on the fence.
So I said, well let's go and find them,
which we did. And I explained to them
which I what I thought I said, I'll tell
you what we ought to do. You're gonna be
here tomorrow. Yeah, they said they were
gonna be there tomorrow. I said, well
tomorrow we'll get hold of you and bring
you into the paddock and you can face up
with Lewis and explain to him
why you've blacked yourself up.
Which they thought was amusing until I
made it clear I wasn't doing it to amuse
anybody. But if they wanted to make a
statement, that would be a good
opportunity to make it.
Funnily enough, they didn't make it.
Welcome to the Singapore Grand Prix.
Some races always produce something
different and interesting
like Singapore for example.
Massa away in the lead.
Hamilton 2nd, Raikkonen 3rd.
In comes Alonzo. Now, he's going to
slip back behind all the traffic.
Oh, big crash. That's Nelson Piquet and
that is likely I would have thought
to bring out a safety car is it?
It looks a mess, but it's a relatively
minor incident. There's a lot of pieces
all over the track. That's gonna work out
very well for those that anticipated
there would be a safety car.
Pit lane is now open.
When this all sorts itself out, Alonso is
going to be leading the Grand Prix.
Massa pits.
Oh no! That's a big mistake. Massa's gone.
That is the race leader. Ferrari's made a
catastrophic mistake here in Singapore.
The green flag.
Race is resumed here in Singapore.
Alonso leads the Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso coming through
to take the checkered flag in
Formula One's first ever night
race and extending his
championship lead.
Lewis Hamilton finishes 3rd.
Felipe Massa crawling
across the line in 13th place.
Piquet's father, Nelson had spoken to his
son to ask him what the hell happened. Why
can you just do stupid things you did?
And I think Piquet explained to his dad
that he was told he ought to do this.
One thing's for sure in my opinion,
it was never Flavio because
he would have never, ever, ever
thought of how to do things like this.
Max was really, really unhappy.
I suppose he would have liked Flavio to
confess that it was him that would have
made life easy for Max then
anyway he didn't get the confession.
The penalty for Briatore is that he can no
longer be associated with the team, he can
no longer be associated with the series,
he can no longer come to the paddock of any
FIA championship event and he can no
longer manage drivers in Formula One.
Do you still count that race as a
proper race, victory for yourself?
Yes, I do.
Even though the team
effectively manufactured it.
But I think that's uh interpretation.
Massa! Massa!
Massa! Massa!
Massa! Massa!
So Lewis all he really wants is
5th place or better this afternoon.
The final stages of
this world championship.
Oh my goodness me, Vettel has taken
a place and that could cost
Hamilton the World Championship.
Only a few corners to go now
and desperation starts to creep
in for Lewis Hamilton.
Is that Glock? Is that Glock going slowly?
Oh my goodness me, Hamilton's
back in position again.
He is going to claim 5th place
which is all he needs to do
to become 2008 Formula One World Champion.
Slavica was fed up my traveling.
I think in fairness to her,
I think I promised her so many times.
This is going to be the last year
and I'm gonna step down.
I think she knew it wasn't true,
it wasn't gonna happen.
Even if it was my intention,
she knew I wouldn't carry it out.
So she decided she was 50 years old.
She was well off.
And I think she thought she could have a
much happier life and
she decided she should leave.
So it was the end of me being with Slavica.
I've been with her for 28 years odd.
It really is one of the biggest failures
that I had when I wanted to do something to
make something happen and it didn't happen.
We renew with CVC or we theoretically as
the basketball teams in America did many
years ago with the big success, create our
own company like NBA just to run to the
races, the TV rights and so
and third to find a different partner.
I don't know whether the teams
wanted to actually run Formula One
in the way they thought it should be run.
This will be very important the team
decisions because at the end of 2012
our contract will expire.
So theoretically CVC doesn't own anything.
In fact they discussed the fact that they
should get together Formula One Teams
Association where they thought they
could be in a much better position.
Formula One has been thrown into chaos with
eight of its major teams saying they're now
planning to set up a rival championship.
The threat is over a row with the
motor sports governing body over proposals
to limit how much each team can spend.
Do you think there will be a resolution?
I have no idea. Speak to Max.
We must operate up the cost cap if you
possible under present circumstances
is to operate any other way.
Max wanted it to be restricted to an
absolute maximum of 40 million a year.
The basic issue is very simple.
We cannot go on spending the
sort of money that's been spent.
So what we're saying is,
limit the expenditure and then a
clever engineer within that
expenditure can do
whatever he likes on the chassis.
This is a row about money and power.
Teams don't like the idea of having budget
caps imposed upon them from above,
but the FIA regards smaller budgets as
essential if the sport is to survive
in these difficult economic times.
It's in the nature of a loony that
you don't really have a leader that
you also loonies together.
Generally speaking, they find it very
difficult to agree on anything.
What's your next step?
The next step that we're going to take
because trying to take something which
isn't yours is not really in accordance
with the law. So next week we will be
issuing legal proceedings against,
against Ferrari and also against FOTA.
This weekend, Bahrain is hosting a
Grand Prix. When Moseley's traveled there
in the past, he's received a royal welcome.
But the crown prince of Bahrain here on the
right has written to him asking him to stay
away this time, informing him that his
presence there would be inappropriate.
Mex had another problem. This is how he was
reported and carrying out sort of sexual
acts and beatings and all sorts of things.
Whatever journalists could even think about
or even wish could happen.
But Max Mosley insists that there were no
Nazi connections to anything that happened.
I said to Max, we've gone to millions of
meetings together. The one meeting I would
have loved to have gone with,
I never got an invite.
Motoring organizations, Formula One
teams and manufacturers and personalities
around Formula One have been suggesting
that Max Mosley must step down as
president of the FIA,
the ultimate governing body of the sport.
Corporation like Toyota and the team can't
really accept behavior of that nature.
If he had been working for any
multinational corporation public company,
a theory would have already had to resign
because the moral issue is part of that.
A person in his position with his
background, it's unbelievable.
Significantly this morning, his long term
partner at the head of Formula One,
Bernie Ecclestone refused to give an
interview that would either criticize or
even defend his old friend instead just
saying that Moseley's future is now
entirely a matter for the FIA.
I had an awful lot of pressure.
The sponsors called me.
All the teams called me.
Promoters called me.
There was no one that didn't call.
So you must insist that Max goes.
The sport is losing certain power,
certain sponsorships and a break up
is possibly imminent if he doesn't
make that decision quite soon.
It's the first time you know that I've done
such a thing, which I knew was wrong to do.
So the World Council meeting, I
apologized to Max in front of everyone.
I was more hurt. I think Max was in it
when it all happened that I'm not
supporting him but have been against him.
And it's something I should never forget.
Speed is everything in Formula one.
But even so the pace of today's deal
between FIA President Max Mosley and
Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo
caught many by surprise.
Ah dear oh dear.
Yeah, I mean but, good quality people.
In those days, they used to get a
percentage of the television revenue
having made an agreement where they got a
percentage of everything the company made.
Which was about 70%.
No FOTA and no more money for the teams.
One of the goal that we shared with Max
one year ago was to maintain the most
important teams and the car manufacturers
in Formula One. There is a commitment to
stay in Formula one at least until 2012.
But as far as Ferrari is concerned,
this is not only Ferrari is
indefinite for, for the future.
Had the teams decided they wasn't
going to sign, it would have been
very easy to get another group of
people to produce Formula One cars
and do exactly that. Formula One
teams are like actors in the film.
It's a film that makes the actors
not the actors that make the film.
Whilst on the face of it, this was an
argument about cutting costs, what the
teams really wanted was a greater say
in the running of Formula One
and they wanted Mosley out.
Max was ready to stand down from the FIA.
He had more or less enough of what he was
doing. And he didn't do this until he knew
he could find somebody that could replace
him and he spoke to Jean Todt. He spoke to
me about this and we agreed probably
Todt would be the right guy.
I love racing, you know, I mean why I've
been aiming for this position because I
love cars, I love racing and
I'm motivated to go for it.
Max had never managed to
achieve what he really wanted
to achieve. It wasn't being
president of the FIA at all.
He was a politician basically and he
would have been a super Prime Minister.
He's a controversial billionaire who's
been the boss of Formula one for three
decades and in that time Bernie
Ecclestone's rub shoulders with world
leaders. Today in an interview with The
Times, he criticized contemporary
politicians and commented on Adolf Hitler.
I get a little bit upset when people say
I'm anti-Semitic or against black people
or anything is completely utterly wrong.
He believes in a form of dictatorship
because he always believed that no one
else will agree, he'll have to pull them
together and it will be his way or no way.
While few will argue against the need for
strong leadership, it is Ecclestone's
reference to Adolf Hitler
that upsets some people.
Typical of journalists and I don't blame
them, they have to write something the
majority of people like to hear. I'm not
anti-Semitic, never have been, never will
be. And I'm not against black people.
Seb is mothered by Red Bull. He's a very
sensitive guy. So it's good for him at Red
Bull. Seb and I got on from day one. We
used to go on holiday together and meet
each other, come to the house at Christmas
because he lives in Switzerland. I taught
him to play Backgammon. He's a winner and
does get upset if he doesn't win.
Christian Horner, the team manager used to
say to me, make sure when you play
backgammon before the race that you beat
him because he gets so aggressive.
We have four contenders.
Who will be champion today?
Sebastian Vettel,
you are the World Champion!
If there's one team who knows
how to party, it's Red Bull.
The new World Champion
Sebastian Vettel.
You're a triple world champion.
Sebastian Vettel wins at India.
I said if we have to lose a team
and which is the one we can't
afford to lose I'd say
Red Bull and Ferrari.
A number of different disciplines are
required to run this business. Any other
business engineering, as well as business
practices, accounting, etcetera, is a
combined board that will run the business.
Frank was one of those guys. He was
always very positive about everything.
Even after this accident.
It's just too much for me.
Really nice thanks.
He was a special, special person.
Michael, he was never born
to be with Mercedes.
It is without doubt that we did not
achieve our goals to develop a world
championship fighting car. It's good to
say goodbye and that's what I'm doing
here with by the end of the season and
it might this time even be forever.
Nikki realized what a valuable driver
Lewis was and he found some way of
persuading him he should be driving for
Mercedes. If he didn't get paid what he
wanted, Lewis, he wasn't going to agree.
So I said at least somebody that I think
Mercedes needs, I'll pay the difference.
But eventually Mercedes paid.
After nearly four decades in charge,
Ecclestone finds himself in the
high court in what is the biggest
challenge of his career.
German media company Constantin Medien
claimed that he finalized a multi-million
dollar payment to a banker called
Gerhard Gribkowsky resulting in F1 being
deliberately undervalued when it was sold
and then losing out on commission and so
they're suing for 140 million dollars.
Ecclestone is accused of entering into a
corrupt agreement with this man,
German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky who was
selling his bank's stake in Formula One.
It's alleged the deal facilitated
that sale which included its lucrative
TV rights to Ecclestone's chosen buyer
who in turn would agree to keep
him on as boss of Formula One.
Today we've been hearing evidence from
Donald Mackenzie who is the chairman of
CVC partners, the private equity group
who bought F1, 7 years ago. He said if
Bernie Ecclestone has done something
criminally wrong, he would be fired.
The judge ruled that the
shares weren't sold too cheap.
Today a legal victory but it may not have
felt that way for Ecclestone with the high
court ruling he paid a bribe to secure
a deal to sell F1 back in 2005.
I never bribed anyone.
You emphatically maintain
your innocence, don't you?
Absolutely.
No corrupt agreement, no corrupt bargain.
No, no.
You confident that you can stay at
the control and at the top of Formula One?
I'm happy doing what I do.
The minute I'm not, I leave.
After the trial in England, it opened the
doors a little bit. The people to start
thinking that maybe there was something
else. So I was prosecuted in Germany.
They were very nice about these things.
I went a couple of days a week.
The whole trial with evidence obviously in
German so I sat there peacefully.
I'd obviously managed to acquire it but
turned out decent lawyers to defend me.
We are in a situation where we can make
our statement and have a fair chance to
explain how the events run at that time.
And during the break for lunch,
they bring me up to speed.
We've been there I think three months or
four months or something and Sven decided
that this could go on forever and maybe
there was a good way of sorting this out.
Basically in a very crude and not very
nice way to put it, you can buy your way
out of these things. So I met with the
prosecutor. Just tell me how much you're
looking for to settle this.
He said, well you're very rich.
Would you like to make an offer?
And I've got to have three figures.
100 million.
I said there's three figures
what you're asking for
Put out my hand to shake hands with him
in the normal used car dealer fashion
which he said, shook hands.
The judge is happy to accept that
and he said to me, can you pay that?
I said if we hurry before the
banks close, I think we can manage.
Am I happy? I'm happy
to get back to the office.
Hamilton wins the Italian Grand Prix.
The margin three seconds over his
teammate Nico Rosberg.
It's another one-two for Mercedes.
Has he got the cap?
They're a bit optimistic thinking that
that flag might be celebrating
one of the three podium men.
The disappointing season for Ferrari.
It was a little bit of a surprise
when Luca decided to disappear
from Formula One because nobody
could ever expect that to happen.
My first meeting with Bernie Ecclestone
was in the middle of 1973 in a hotel in
the airport where we used to have a
meeting to Formula One and I'd be
sent there from Enzo Ferrari.
I mean he was Ferrari, no doubt about that.
Everybody looked at him as Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton is the 2014 World Champion.
Well done.
World Champion.
First Mercedes Benz champion since Fangio.
Good day.
For you.
Lewis Hamilton and he's now
a three time World Champion.
You start thinking about, you know
everything, you've gone through the trials
and tribulations, what my dad did to get
me there, the sacrifice that my dad had
four jobs at one stage, he was just
putting for sale signs up in vending
machines and doing anything he could
just to keep me Go-Karting.
And then you sack him.
Well, yeah.
Donald Mackenzie rented a really nice boat.
Chase Carey and Sean Bratches and their
wives wanted to see royal. We had dinner
together and talked about things in general
and never really much about the business,
but more about Monaco and Formula One.
Business wasn't discussed there at all. I
think what they really thought in the end,
the bottom line was simple. Here we've got
an 80 year old guy that's been running
this company for 40 years. Imagine us
proper American business people,
if we had the company, what we could do.
Hello Bernie, I haven't talked to you on
the grid for a while.
Is there something big going down
in Formula One ownership?
I don't think so. A lot of conversations
good for the press, you know, they've got
nothing else to write about.
This is all good.
I believe the deal is going to happen with
a minority shareholding initially with
Liberty Media guy called Chase Carey
coming in as chairman, presumably
executive chairman, which obviously has
implications on where Mr. E.
fits in it all and...
If that's the case, is your hunch
that this could be the
end of Bernie Ecclestone.
If the deal gets concluded,
changes will take place.
Welcome back. Bernie Ecclestone says he is
prepared to stay in his role as the chief
executive of Formula One following
Liberty Media which belongs to John Malone,
the news that has bought the company that
has a controlling stake in Formula One.
The company that has that stake is CVC and
now Liberty Media has bought a
controlling stake for $4.4 billion.
Take debt involved in the actual size
becomes about $8 billion.
Ecclestone is set to stay for now but
there's a new chairman. Chase Carey.
We have somebody who knows
what they're doing for a change.
I'm just here learning from Bernie,
I shall have to retire one day for sure.
Looking forward to it or
Why, nobody looks forward to dying.
I remember you winding me up
years ago when I first met you.
And then one day I had a call from then
new Chief Executive of the company saying
could we meet up on Monday. I said sure,
sure. What time not to 10 o'clock. I said
yeah fine. So I appeared smartly dressed
with a tie. Well I thought you know
make a good appearance in case they want
me to hang on so I'll be looking for a
job so let's see what happens. And I was
greeted although Chase was a bit late.
He said we bought the company.
I said I know. I knew because
I had all the shares that they bought.
So yeah I know and he said ...
I'll take your job. So I said you bought
the car you might as well drive it.
And then well that lawyer had been
with me for years working for me
appeared with a bit of paper written out.
They said this is a sort of leaving the
company saying you're gonna leave because
I had still had a three year contract
to go. So I said yeah so she said to me,
there it is and I said what is it?
She said it's you're resigning. So I said
where do I sign? Got a pen and signed
and that was the end of that.
It's really like a marriage really.
Easy to get in, difficult to get out.
So I got out.
So that was the end of Formula one for me.
And then I was gone.
I can honestly say I've never planned
anything. I've seen opportunities.
If I think they're worth it,
I take them and try and make them work.
Sometimes they work well and sometimes
I wish I hadn't have jumped in.
But overall I've been lucky.
Bernie is really a gardener.
He found this piece of land and planted
some seeds that grew quickly and others
that would take many seasons. Sometimes
he had to cut things down even if they
were very beautiful because Bernie always
knew what the garden would be.
Bernie's garden will look after
itself when his garden was made to last.
somebody that wants to buy Formula One.
I said there's been a few people
who have been trying to do that.
Are they serious, yeh,
we need to talk to somebody.
You want to talk to somebody that owns it.
Probably the best thing to do
because it's not me.
The banks had a majority of the board
and if they had wanted to,
they could have fired me.
But then Donald Mackenzie who ran CVC,
a very successful hedge fund,
wanted to buy Formula One.
And Donald said to me if we buy,
would you stay on and run the company.
Donald said we have to sort the money out.
It's a case of what we could
borrow and the interest rate.
Let's see if we can help them
so I called Fred Goodwin from RBS.
I said Fred, it's a good deal
you're here in my opinion.
So Donald borrowed the money from RBS.
Lo and behold, I had another boss.
But I had a few up to now
so I knew exactly how to behave.
If I ever have.
180 miles an hour around the outside
I've never seen anything like it.
Fourth championship again.
Thank you for all these years.
I've decided together with the team
at the end of this year that
I'm going to retire from racing.
Congratulations on Lewis Hamilton
who's such a wonderful prospect
in British motor sport.
Double winner in GP2 this weekend
winning yesterday and winning today.
You're coming through the ranks now.
Everything you've done from Karting
all the way up you've won in every Formula.
You're very much looks like you're
going to win this GP2 season
if you continue at the pace.
But in your eyes now, you know that you've
got an association McLaren, but where do
you really think you can go from here?
Is it truthfully into a McLaren car
or is it somewhere else
down the Formula One pit lane?
I think anything is possible
as you know, there's possibly
a seat available at McLaren, but
that would be a dream to go
into the second McLaren seat.
But I think my aim at the moment
again is to win the GP2 title,
but then we just have to wait
and see. I don't expect to
jump straight into a McLaren.
I would have thought I would go
into one of the lower teams,
but we'll just have to wait and see.
Putting anyone beside Fernando
could be trouble.
This could be the lead going for Hamilton.
Alonso senses an opportunity.
They are side by side down
the pit straight in Indianapolis.
Hamilton holds his nerve.
Ron, I don't think he ever looked
as Lewis being a number 2 driver.
We come to Grand Prix's with a clear
intention of running our
cars equally, giving both
drivers every opportunity to win.
Hamilton deliberately disobeyed
instructions to let the lighter
Alonso passed to go for pole.
Alonso having to wait.
There's Lewis Hamilton
queueing up behind him.
Now Alonso's not getting on with it.
Only a minute forty to go.
Is he blocking Hamilton here?
That was a little bit naughty I think.
I think he deliberately did that.
That is extraordinary.
A bit of gamesmanship within
his team by Fernando Alonso.
Ron Dennis got out of his chair and was
waving his hands around clearly furious.
Well, the McLaren team try to insist
it was a team error but the stewards,
they decided that they didn't believe
what Alonso had to tell them and
they moved him five places
back on the grid.
People used to ask me, tell me, what do you
actually do? I tell I'm a firefight
because there was always fires.
On the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix,
Ron rang me and he said, I just had Alonso
in the motor home and he says he's got
information. He's threatening to give it to
the Federation. And then Ron said, but
there isn't any information. So I said,
well, so it's an empty threat.
Yes, a completely empty threat.
There's no information.
There's nothing to come out.
I can assure you that if there was
something Max, I would have told you.
The FIA say they have the smoking gun.
Proof that McLaren had used Ferrari
secrets to make their own cars go faster.
The new evidence was an email between
test driver Pedro de la Rosa and race
driver Fernando Alonso, discussing
Ferrari's weight distribution, their
flexible wings, braking system and
pit stop strategy. Ron Dennis insists
there was never any Ferrari intellectual
property actually on the McLaren car.
It's very difficult for me when somebody
I've known 40 years, looks me in the eye
and says Max, I'm telling the truth with
complete sincerity and you believe him.
And it was only when I got the list from
the Italian police 323 I think SMS phone
calls going over a three month period.
There has to be more to this,
this is something serious.
I said to Ron beforehand,
when you come into the meeting,
don't come in with 10 lawyers and a doctor
and whatever. I said, just come to yourself
and simply say the truth, I may have made a
mistake in letting what happened happen.
Probably a big mistake
and I'm sorry about this.
I just want to be very clear at no stage
did I ever say any lie to anybody. I put my
integrity above everything, above this
sport and certainly above Formula One.
In the end, Max got really upset
about the whole thing.
I said, Ron you have polluted the
championship in 2007. You've probably
polluted it in 2008 because we have no way
of knowing what information you're using
for what in your 2007, 2008 cars.
So you better stay out of the championship
until 2009 if you're still around because
that way we know it's completely fair.
In the end, I managed to convince the
World Council at that time, all we needed
to do was take away what they would have
earned normally if they did run for two
years and not ban them because if we banned
McLaren they'd never come back and it was
terrible to lose a team like McLaren.
This gentleman here, front row.
What's your next course of action?
Will you accept the penalty?
Are you going to fight it?
Okay. We believe we've got the grounds
for an appeal, but of course we're going
to wait for the findings of the FIA,
which we believe are going to be
published tomorrow and we'll
consider those carefully.
Pity that we lost Ron.
He's one of the old timers that was really
was behind Formula One from very early on.
Kimi Raikkonen is World Champion of 2007
and the dream is over for Lewis Hamilton.
The pictures that have shocked
the world of motor racing.
Spain is under pressure to act after Lewis
Hamilton was racially abused in Barcelona.
Hamilton is not popular in Spain after
a public falling out with Spanish driver
Fernando Alonso last year.
It's been reported that a few people,
spectators is to sort of black themselves
up a little bit was leaning on the fence.
So I said, well let's go and find them,
which we did. And I explained to them
which I what I thought I said, I'll tell
you what we ought to do. You're gonna be
here tomorrow. Yeah, they said they were
gonna be there tomorrow. I said, well
tomorrow we'll get hold of you and bring
you into the paddock and you can face up
with Lewis and explain to him
why you've blacked yourself up.
Which they thought was amusing until I
made it clear I wasn't doing it to amuse
anybody. But if they wanted to make a
statement, that would be a good
opportunity to make it.
Funnily enough, they didn't make it.
Welcome to the Singapore Grand Prix.
Some races always produce something
different and interesting
like Singapore for example.
Massa away in the lead.
Hamilton 2nd, Raikkonen 3rd.
In comes Alonzo. Now, he's going to
slip back behind all the traffic.
Oh, big crash. That's Nelson Piquet and
that is likely I would have thought
to bring out a safety car is it?
It looks a mess, but it's a relatively
minor incident. There's a lot of pieces
all over the track. That's gonna work out
very well for those that anticipated
there would be a safety car.
Pit lane is now open.
When this all sorts itself out, Alonso is
going to be leading the Grand Prix.
Massa pits.
Oh no! That's a big mistake. Massa's gone.
That is the race leader. Ferrari's made a
catastrophic mistake here in Singapore.
The green flag.
Race is resumed here in Singapore.
Alonso leads the Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso coming through
to take the checkered flag in
Formula One's first ever night
race and extending his
championship lead.
Lewis Hamilton finishes 3rd.
Felipe Massa crawling
across the line in 13th place.
Piquet's father, Nelson had spoken to his
son to ask him what the hell happened. Why
can you just do stupid things you did?
And I think Piquet explained to his dad
that he was told he ought to do this.
One thing's for sure in my opinion,
it was never Flavio because
he would have never, ever, ever
thought of how to do things like this.
Max was really, really unhappy.
I suppose he would have liked Flavio to
confess that it was him that would have
made life easy for Max then
anyway he didn't get the confession.
The penalty for Briatore is that he can no
longer be associated with the team, he can
no longer be associated with the series,
he can no longer come to the paddock of any
FIA championship event and he can no
longer manage drivers in Formula One.
Do you still count that race as a
proper race, victory for yourself?
Yes, I do.
Even though the team
effectively manufactured it.
But I think that's uh interpretation.
Massa! Massa!
Massa! Massa!
Massa! Massa!
So Lewis all he really wants is
5th place or better this afternoon.
The final stages of
this world championship.
Oh my goodness me, Vettel has taken
a place and that could cost
Hamilton the World Championship.
Only a few corners to go now
and desperation starts to creep
in for Lewis Hamilton.
Is that Glock? Is that Glock going slowly?
Oh my goodness me, Hamilton's
back in position again.
He is going to claim 5th place
which is all he needs to do
to become 2008 Formula One World Champion.
Slavica was fed up my traveling.
I think in fairness to her,
I think I promised her so many times.
This is going to be the last year
and I'm gonna step down.
I think she knew it wasn't true,
it wasn't gonna happen.
Even if it was my intention,
she knew I wouldn't carry it out.
So she decided she was 50 years old.
She was well off.
And I think she thought she could have a
much happier life and
she decided she should leave.
So it was the end of me being with Slavica.
I've been with her for 28 years odd.
It really is one of the biggest failures
that I had when I wanted to do something to
make something happen and it didn't happen.
We renew with CVC or we theoretically as
the basketball teams in America did many
years ago with the big success, create our
own company like NBA just to run to the
races, the TV rights and so
and third to find a different partner.
I don't know whether the teams
wanted to actually run Formula One
in the way they thought it should be run.
This will be very important the team
decisions because at the end of 2012
our contract will expire.
So theoretically CVC doesn't own anything.
In fact they discussed the fact that they
should get together Formula One Teams
Association where they thought they
could be in a much better position.
Formula One has been thrown into chaos with
eight of its major teams saying they're now
planning to set up a rival championship.
The threat is over a row with the
motor sports governing body over proposals
to limit how much each team can spend.
Do you think there will be a resolution?
I have no idea. Speak to Max.
We must operate up the cost cap if you
possible under present circumstances
is to operate any other way.
Max wanted it to be restricted to an
absolute maximum of 40 million a year.
The basic issue is very simple.
We cannot go on spending the
sort of money that's been spent.
So what we're saying is,
limit the expenditure and then a
clever engineer within that
expenditure can do
whatever he likes on the chassis.
This is a row about money and power.
Teams don't like the idea of having budget
caps imposed upon them from above,
but the FIA regards smaller budgets as
essential if the sport is to survive
in these difficult economic times.
It's in the nature of a loony that
you don't really have a leader that
you also loonies together.
Generally speaking, they find it very
difficult to agree on anything.
What's your next step?
The next step that we're going to take
because trying to take something which
isn't yours is not really in accordance
with the law. So next week we will be
issuing legal proceedings against,
against Ferrari and also against FOTA.
This weekend, Bahrain is hosting a
Grand Prix. When Moseley's traveled there
in the past, he's received a royal welcome.
But the crown prince of Bahrain here on the
right has written to him asking him to stay
away this time, informing him that his
presence there would be inappropriate.
Mex had another problem. This is how he was
reported and carrying out sort of sexual
acts and beatings and all sorts of things.
Whatever journalists could even think about
or even wish could happen.
But Max Mosley insists that there were no
Nazi connections to anything that happened.
I said to Max, we've gone to millions of
meetings together. The one meeting I would
have loved to have gone with,
I never got an invite.
Motoring organizations, Formula One
teams and manufacturers and personalities
around Formula One have been suggesting
that Max Mosley must step down as
president of the FIA,
the ultimate governing body of the sport.
Corporation like Toyota and the team can't
really accept behavior of that nature.
If he had been working for any
multinational corporation public company,
a theory would have already had to resign
because the moral issue is part of that.
A person in his position with his
background, it's unbelievable.
Significantly this morning, his long term
partner at the head of Formula One,
Bernie Ecclestone refused to give an
interview that would either criticize or
even defend his old friend instead just
saying that Moseley's future is now
entirely a matter for the FIA.
I had an awful lot of pressure.
The sponsors called me.
All the teams called me.
Promoters called me.
There was no one that didn't call.
So you must insist that Max goes.
The sport is losing certain power,
certain sponsorships and a break up
is possibly imminent if he doesn't
make that decision quite soon.
It's the first time you know that I've done
such a thing, which I knew was wrong to do.
So the World Council meeting, I
apologized to Max in front of everyone.
I was more hurt. I think Max was in it
when it all happened that I'm not
supporting him but have been against him.
And it's something I should never forget.
Speed is everything in Formula one.
But even so the pace of today's deal
between FIA President Max Mosley and
Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo
caught many by surprise.
Ah dear oh dear.
Yeah, I mean but, good quality people.
In those days, they used to get a
percentage of the television revenue
having made an agreement where they got a
percentage of everything the company made.
Which was about 70%.
No FOTA and no more money for the teams.
One of the goal that we shared with Max
one year ago was to maintain the most
important teams and the car manufacturers
in Formula One. There is a commitment to
stay in Formula one at least until 2012.
But as far as Ferrari is concerned,
this is not only Ferrari is
indefinite for, for the future.
Had the teams decided they wasn't
going to sign, it would have been
very easy to get another group of
people to produce Formula One cars
and do exactly that. Formula One
teams are like actors in the film.
It's a film that makes the actors
not the actors that make the film.
Whilst on the face of it, this was an
argument about cutting costs, what the
teams really wanted was a greater say
in the running of Formula One
and they wanted Mosley out.
Max was ready to stand down from the FIA.
He had more or less enough of what he was
doing. And he didn't do this until he knew
he could find somebody that could replace
him and he spoke to Jean Todt. He spoke to
me about this and we agreed probably
Todt would be the right guy.
I love racing, you know, I mean why I've
been aiming for this position because I
love cars, I love racing and
I'm motivated to go for it.
Max had never managed to
achieve what he really wanted
to achieve. It wasn't being
president of the FIA at all.
He was a politician basically and he
would have been a super Prime Minister.
He's a controversial billionaire who's
been the boss of Formula one for three
decades and in that time Bernie
Ecclestone's rub shoulders with world
leaders. Today in an interview with The
Times, he criticized contemporary
politicians and commented on Adolf Hitler.
I get a little bit upset when people say
I'm anti-Semitic or against black people
or anything is completely utterly wrong.
He believes in a form of dictatorship
because he always believed that no one
else will agree, he'll have to pull them
together and it will be his way or no way.
While few will argue against the need for
strong leadership, it is Ecclestone's
reference to Adolf Hitler
that upsets some people.
Typical of journalists and I don't blame
them, they have to write something the
majority of people like to hear. I'm not
anti-Semitic, never have been, never will
be. And I'm not against black people.
Seb is mothered by Red Bull. He's a very
sensitive guy. So it's good for him at Red
Bull. Seb and I got on from day one. We
used to go on holiday together and meet
each other, come to the house at Christmas
because he lives in Switzerland. I taught
him to play Backgammon. He's a winner and
does get upset if he doesn't win.
Christian Horner, the team manager used to
say to me, make sure when you play
backgammon before the race that you beat
him because he gets so aggressive.
We have four contenders.
Who will be champion today?
Sebastian Vettel,
you are the World Champion!
If there's one team who knows
how to party, it's Red Bull.
The new World Champion
Sebastian Vettel.
You're a triple world champion.
Sebastian Vettel wins at India.
I said if we have to lose a team
and which is the one we can't
afford to lose I'd say
Red Bull and Ferrari.
A number of different disciplines are
required to run this business. Any other
business engineering, as well as business
practices, accounting, etcetera, is a
combined board that will run the business.
Frank was one of those guys. He was
always very positive about everything.
Even after this accident.
It's just too much for me.
Really nice thanks.
He was a special, special person.
Michael, he was never born
to be with Mercedes.
It is without doubt that we did not
achieve our goals to develop a world
championship fighting car. It's good to
say goodbye and that's what I'm doing
here with by the end of the season and
it might this time even be forever.
Nikki realized what a valuable driver
Lewis was and he found some way of
persuading him he should be driving for
Mercedes. If he didn't get paid what he
wanted, Lewis, he wasn't going to agree.
So I said at least somebody that I think
Mercedes needs, I'll pay the difference.
But eventually Mercedes paid.
After nearly four decades in charge,
Ecclestone finds himself in the
high court in what is the biggest
challenge of his career.
German media company Constantin Medien
claimed that he finalized a multi-million
dollar payment to a banker called
Gerhard Gribkowsky resulting in F1 being
deliberately undervalued when it was sold
and then losing out on commission and so
they're suing for 140 million dollars.
Ecclestone is accused of entering into a
corrupt agreement with this man,
German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky who was
selling his bank's stake in Formula One.
It's alleged the deal facilitated
that sale which included its lucrative
TV rights to Ecclestone's chosen buyer
who in turn would agree to keep
him on as boss of Formula One.
Today we've been hearing evidence from
Donald Mackenzie who is the chairman of
CVC partners, the private equity group
who bought F1, 7 years ago. He said if
Bernie Ecclestone has done something
criminally wrong, he would be fired.
The judge ruled that the
shares weren't sold too cheap.
Today a legal victory but it may not have
felt that way for Ecclestone with the high
court ruling he paid a bribe to secure
a deal to sell F1 back in 2005.
I never bribed anyone.
You emphatically maintain
your innocence, don't you?
Absolutely.
No corrupt agreement, no corrupt bargain.
No, no.
You confident that you can stay at
the control and at the top of Formula One?
I'm happy doing what I do.
The minute I'm not, I leave.
After the trial in England, it opened the
doors a little bit. The people to start
thinking that maybe there was something
else. So I was prosecuted in Germany.
They were very nice about these things.
I went a couple of days a week.
The whole trial with evidence obviously in
German so I sat there peacefully.
I'd obviously managed to acquire it but
turned out decent lawyers to defend me.
We are in a situation where we can make
our statement and have a fair chance to
explain how the events run at that time.
And during the break for lunch,
they bring me up to speed.
We've been there I think three months or
four months or something and Sven decided
that this could go on forever and maybe
there was a good way of sorting this out.
Basically in a very crude and not very
nice way to put it, you can buy your way
out of these things. So I met with the
prosecutor. Just tell me how much you're
looking for to settle this.
He said, well you're very rich.
Would you like to make an offer?
And I've got to have three figures.
100 million.
I said there's three figures
what you're asking for
Put out my hand to shake hands with him
in the normal used car dealer fashion
which he said, shook hands.
The judge is happy to accept that
and he said to me, can you pay that?
I said if we hurry before the
banks close, I think we can manage.
Am I happy? I'm happy
to get back to the office.
Hamilton wins the Italian Grand Prix.
The margin three seconds over his
teammate Nico Rosberg.
It's another one-two for Mercedes.
Has he got the cap?
They're a bit optimistic thinking that
that flag might be celebrating
one of the three podium men.
The disappointing season for Ferrari.
It was a little bit of a surprise
when Luca decided to disappear
from Formula One because nobody
could ever expect that to happen.
My first meeting with Bernie Ecclestone
was in the middle of 1973 in a hotel in
the airport where we used to have a
meeting to Formula One and I'd be
sent there from Enzo Ferrari.
I mean he was Ferrari, no doubt about that.
Everybody looked at him as Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton is the 2014 World Champion.
Well done.
World Champion.
First Mercedes Benz champion since Fangio.
Good day.
For you.
Lewis Hamilton and he's now
a three time World Champion.
You start thinking about, you know
everything, you've gone through the trials
and tribulations, what my dad did to get
me there, the sacrifice that my dad had
four jobs at one stage, he was just
putting for sale signs up in vending
machines and doing anything he could
just to keep me Go-Karting.
And then you sack him.
Well, yeah.
Donald Mackenzie rented a really nice boat.
Chase Carey and Sean Bratches and their
wives wanted to see royal. We had dinner
together and talked about things in general
and never really much about the business,
but more about Monaco and Formula One.
Business wasn't discussed there at all. I
think what they really thought in the end,
the bottom line was simple. Here we've got
an 80 year old guy that's been running
this company for 40 years. Imagine us
proper American business people,
if we had the company, what we could do.
Hello Bernie, I haven't talked to you on
the grid for a while.
Is there something big going down
in Formula One ownership?
I don't think so. A lot of conversations
good for the press, you know, they've got
nothing else to write about.
This is all good.
I believe the deal is going to happen with
a minority shareholding initially with
Liberty Media guy called Chase Carey
coming in as chairman, presumably
executive chairman, which obviously has
implications on where Mr. E.
fits in it all and...
If that's the case, is your hunch
that this could be the
end of Bernie Ecclestone.
If the deal gets concluded,
changes will take place.
Welcome back. Bernie Ecclestone says he is
prepared to stay in his role as the chief
executive of Formula One following
Liberty Media which belongs to John Malone,
the news that has bought the company that
has a controlling stake in Formula One.
The company that has that stake is CVC and
now Liberty Media has bought a
controlling stake for $4.4 billion.
Take debt involved in the actual size
becomes about $8 billion.
Ecclestone is set to stay for now but
there's a new chairman. Chase Carey.
We have somebody who knows
what they're doing for a change.
I'm just here learning from Bernie,
I shall have to retire one day for sure.
Looking forward to it or
Why, nobody looks forward to dying.
I remember you winding me up
years ago when I first met you.
And then one day I had a call from then
new Chief Executive of the company saying
could we meet up on Monday. I said sure,
sure. What time not to 10 o'clock. I said
yeah fine. So I appeared smartly dressed
with a tie. Well I thought you know
make a good appearance in case they want
me to hang on so I'll be looking for a
job so let's see what happens. And I was
greeted although Chase was a bit late.
He said we bought the company.
I said I know. I knew because
I had all the shares that they bought.
So yeah I know and he said ...
I'll take your job. So I said you bought
the car you might as well drive it.
And then well that lawyer had been
with me for years working for me
appeared with a bit of paper written out.
They said this is a sort of leaving the
company saying you're gonna leave because
I had still had a three year contract
to go. So I said yeah so she said to me,
there it is and I said what is it?
She said it's you're resigning. So I said
where do I sign? Got a pen and signed
and that was the end of that.
It's really like a marriage really.
Easy to get in, difficult to get out.
So I got out.
So that was the end of Formula one for me.
And then I was gone.
I can honestly say I've never planned
anything. I've seen opportunities.
If I think they're worth it,
I take them and try and make them work.
Sometimes they work well and sometimes
I wish I hadn't have jumped in.
But overall I've been lucky.
Bernie is really a gardener.
He found this piece of land and planted
some seeds that grew quickly and others
that would take many seasons. Sometimes
he had to cut things down even if they
were very beautiful because Bernie always
knew what the garden would be.
Bernie's garden will look after
itself when his garden was made to last.