Motor Racing: Ecclestone Makes No Apology for Chasing China's Golden Fleece

Sunday's Chinese grand prix promises to be the biggest payday of Bernie Ecclestone's 25-year career as the controller of formula one. On the face of it Shanghai's $400m (£223m) extravaganza may seem an unlikely alliance between the last surviving totalitarian superpower and one of sport's greatest entrepreneurs but the reality is that it is a hugely profitable exercise for both sides of the political divide.

"There are 1.3bn people in China and we currently have a television viewership in Shanghai and Beijing alone which exceeds the total viewership in the whole of Europe," said Ecclestone, who will sweep up more than $40m from the Chinese grand prix alone from fees and trackside advertising.

"I've been 10 years working behind the scenes to get the right place and Shanghai is certainly the right place in my view. It's not a case of the country coming along and saying 'Bernie, can we have a grand prix?' It's a case of me working away to find the right people to talk to, to make the approach to. Just like when we took formula one behind the Iron Curtain for the first time to Hungary back in 1986."

If Ecclestone is concerned about human rights issues in China, he rationalises that concern in what some might consider a rather simplistic manner. Formula one has clearly become more sanguine about such matters since 1985 when it turned its back on South Africa at the height of apartheid.

"We've never been involved in politics or these sorts of things," he said, sitting in a side office of his grey motorhome which dominates the formula one paddock. "It's not for us to rule a country. I tell people that, when they go into a country, they should respect their laws or not go into that country in the first place."

Much to the indignation of the competing teams, none of Ecclestone's Shanghai cash bonanza will be shared with them. As things stand under the terms of the Concorde agreement, the teams get a stake only in the television revenues - and only 47% of that, shared among the 10 of them.

The news that the Jaguar team is being put up for sale by its owners Ford further highlights the lack of commercial-rights cash filtering through to the poorer teams at the back of the field.

High court

Ecclestone, who admits that he would probably "still be a used car dealer" if he had not become involved in formula one, is currently facing a further legal challenge in the London high court from the three banks which own 75% of SLEC, his formula one operation company, questioning the legitimacy of some directors of F1 Holdings, the company which has day-to-day control of the business and its revenues. Legal experts have speculated that the action could cost him millions of pounds.

Yet, if Ecclestone is a man under pressure, he certainly does not look like it. Softly spoken to the point of reticence, he deflects any attempt at criticism with something approaching the injured innocence of a robust entrepreneur struggling to make a living rather than one of the richest men in the UK with a fortune of around £2bn.

When Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari chairman, recently launched an attack on the current commercial arrangements in formula one, Ecclestone dismissed it as "the same old record as the last two or three years."

He added mischieviously: "It's pure jealousy, 100%. Our company [SLEC] is only making what was agreed in the first place. Nobody has stolen anything but what concerns them [the teams] is what our company is making. They would rather have less money themselves if it meant us having less. But I don't think this or the bank issue will be settled quickly. I'm a realist."

But does Ecclestone tire of having to defend formula one from accusations that it is currently pretty boring and processional? "I don't defend it," he said. "It is a matter of fact. But what is quite strange is that television figures and the spectator levels at many tracks have held up well. Is it boring? Well, if you're purely thinking about the winner. It may be a case of looking past the leader of the race as there's been a lot of good competition down the field.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm a Schumacher fan. But would he have won as many championships as he has done if Ayrton Senna had not left us? I very much doubt it. Of course, Ayrton never had the luxuries Michael has had. Michael has never had anybody in his team who has been able, or been in a position, to challenge him and he's certainly in the best team there is."

He does not believe that Ferrari have learned from the PR own-goal they scored in the 2002 Austrian grand prix when Rubens Barrichello was instructed to relinquish the win to Schumacher. "They have a policy to win the world championship," he said. "They don't want to take any risks but what's a little bit bad is their selfishness of the team over not wanting to compromise over the regulations to make racing a little more challenging.

Modest roots

Ecclestone once famously remarked "first you get on, then you get rich, then you get honest". It was tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, but a throw-away line which reflects his unpretentious roots as a used car and motorcycle dealer in Bexleyheath. He has never been part of the blue-blooded British motor racing establishment, which is why he takes such obvious satisfaction from putting the British grand prix organisers through the hoop on a reg ular basis. He points to tracks such as Bahrain and Shanghai as new jewels in the formula one crown and has little time for Silverstone's owners, the British Racing Drivers' Club, whom he believes are attempting to get the race on the cheap.

"It would be as simple as taking the German grand prix, scratching out 'Germany' and putting in 'Britain'," he says, "but the BRDC don't want to pay for that. They have a product and they are acting as if the whole world wants to buy it. It's not like that. It's the other way round. The 2005 race is far from secure."

It is believed that he wants to charge Silverstone £8.3m for the 2005 British grand prix rather than the £6m which the BRDC is rumoured to have offered. Yet his impatience with Silverstone seems to soften as the conversation turns towards the prospect of government support for Britain's round of the world championship.

"Most of the races on the calendar, one way or another, now have support, either from regional sources or the government itself in backing the race," he said. "So, when you think of how much a government needs to spend to put on something like the Olympics - a once-in-a-lifetime event - then the cost of a grand prix looks pretty modest."

There is also the issue of Ecclestone's succession. He is 74 next month, still looks trim and underwent a successful heart bypass operation four years ago. But formula one after he is gone is very clearly something he does not wish to discuss.

"I haven't given it much thought as I'm not planning on dying," he says crisply. "The secret in business is knowing what not to do rather than what to do. Experience is important. We've taken Michael Payne on board after 20 years working on sponsorship and branding for the Olympics and he and some others may have some good ideas for the future."

Surely this appointment cuts across one of the basic Ecclestone business tenets, namely that delegation is the art of accepting second best? "I'm not delegating," he replied. "They're advisors."