[Foghorn Leghorn]

early days, for Liberty, but given the criticism, who would you rather have in charge?

[Jody Barton]

I honestly think Bernie, when kept in check, but also more significantly robustly backed up by Max Mosley did a pretty good job of steering F1 in the right direction. The loss of Max had massive ramifications on not only F1, but other forms of motorsport two. Max was an exceptionally gifted barrister who knew how to check others power expertly with rules and agreements. Once he was gone the FIA were greatly weakened, and in F1 I always felt the manufacturers filled that void, and Bernie, quite frankly didn’t have scooby-doo about how to deal with it.

This, I believe has left an historic problem that LM will have to deal with, but that isn’t easy to deal with. So fast forward to LM, are they any better than Bernie at curbing the power of manufacturers, and certain teams within the sport? No. Their approach sadly seems to derive from the poker table and bluffing. Trouble is they’re trying to bluff organisations that know everything already. I mean, hinting that Nissan might be interested in F1, when they have very close ties to Renault, and indeed share R&D resources with them was cringeworthy, and they’ve blown their load on such statements. They quite frankly over embellished the story, and over played their hand.

I think they are now going to struggle to wrest that power back off of the 4 manufacturers, especially when the big stalking horse they have, the VW Group and Porsche, are basically making it clear they’re interested in F1, period. Beyond that I think Toyota might be, Aston Martin definitely are, but need a lot of pieces to fall into place first, and then really it’s tumbleweed. Whether they like it or not, they need the 4 manufacturers they have, and to add to them, not decrease them. They’re going to have to compromise on the PU’s, they gambled 3 of the manufacturers would be happy for major changes, to curb Mercedes runaway success, they didn’t realise those companies boards see the HUGE technological leaps being made in F1 as highly valuable. Take Fiat Group, they were massively behind on battery and deployment tech, arguably, on the deployment tech now they’re third in the world behind Mercedes and Toyota and on a par with VW.

Then we look at the ideas LM have:

1) More city races... no thanks. I was asked to walk the proposed Copenhagen course a few weeks back, while not a terrible layout, it’s not ideal either. F1 has always been about custom racetracks, Monaco was the exception that proved the rule.

2) New engines... maybe. Some good ideas, and some terrible ones. I still maintain the engines aren’t the problem, the affect of the aero wake is. Do we’re turn down aero? No. We mitigate it with active suspension and ground effects. 15 to 20 years ago that stuff was complicated and expensive, nowadays it’s cheap standard tech.

3) Better and fairer distribution of prize money, yeah. Agreed. However, so did Bernie for his entire tenure, didn’t happen. If they pull it off then kudos to them.

Thing is I think they’re picking all the wrong fights, doesn’t matter if some of their ideas are good (and they are) fundamentally I think they’re heading in the wrong direction on many things.

[Chloe17b]

I'd much rather have Liberty. bernie was amazing but so corrupt, especially with Max Mosley who was a disgrace. 2007, 2008 ew. Whether liberty are tough enough as @jody_barton says is a question mark. But all the problems in F1 are basically from Bernie, and didn't Max want the manufacturers in? And Bernie swore f1 would always be free to air and then ker-ching he took the money and did a runner!

[forzaferrari]

The jury is still out for me, much as I disliked the jumped up little weasel Bernie I feel Liberty is trying to be everyone`s pal, can they lead F1 forward....mmm?
The only hope is the great Ross Brawn.

[pennywise]

You can never trust anyone who sold cars for a living.....mmm

[morini]

Bernie is a dinosaur, nobody could argue, surely? F1 certainly needs a fresh outlook and Liberty looked like they were making the right kind of noises initially. However, COTA 2017 scared the hell out of me. If that is an indicator of how they are going to market F1 to the worldwide public then I am very worried! That type of American Razzamataz will kill F1 and they need a serious rethink.

F1 needs a Liberty(esque) company who are not American and will respect the history and heritage of the sport. This isn't meant as a racist comment, so don't slate me for that,. It is a cultural thing and IMO liberty are not the right outfit to respect the culture.

[forzaferrari]

You can never trust anyone who sold cars for a living.....mmm

I dont know what you are talking about 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

You can never trust anyone who sold cars for a living.....mmm

I dont know what you are talking about 

haha - bit of a dig there forza, I actually really liked Bernie, not all he did, or what he said, but a real character of the sport, and as Jody has posted - I should've said Bernie and Max Mosley, there's a great interview of Max, by Brundle, where he tells all, but Bernie knew how to ruffle feathers, no foghorn jokes there - haha

[Jody Barton]

I'd much rather have Liberty.  bernie was amazing but so corrupt, especially with Max Mosley who was a disgrace.  2007, 2008 ew.  Whether liberty are tough enough as @jody_barton says is a question mark.  But all the problems in F1 are basically from Bernie, and didn't Max want the manufacturers in?  And Bernie swore f1 would always be free to air and then ker-ching he took the money and did a runner!

Max wanted more engine manufacturers in F1 and he succeeded in bringing in Honda, BMW, Toyota and nearly secured VW in the shape of Audi before Bernie scuppered it again. They all started to leave when Max left. Say what you like about his personal life, but Max was bloody good at tying teams down to contracts and rules, and hashing out agreements, afterall, as a barrister it was his bread and butter. There is no question though that under Bernie F1 had become stale, question is whether this lot are any better... for me? The jury is still out.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

I'd much rather have Liberty.  bernie was amazing but so corrupt, especially with Max Mosley who was a disgrace.  2007, 2008 ew.  Whether liberty are tough enough as @jody_barton says is a question mark.  But all the problems in F1 are basically from Bernie, and didn't Max want the manufacturers in?  And Bernie swore f1 would always be free to air and then ker-ching he took the money and did a runner!

fair points Chloe - I think Bernie should've left much earlier, but as it was owned at the time by CVC, not sure it was all Bernie on that one, shareholders, etc, but such is the world we live in now, run by corporations, Liberty makes good noises, but haven't backed things up much.  Also, I hope they got the message about that horrific boxing guy announcing thing haha - my main question/point was like or dislike Bernie and Max - they did keep the teams in line