Bernie Ecclestone has apologised for using the word “beggars” to describe the struggling teams in Formula One.
The sport’s chief executive, speaking at the recent race in Austin as Caterham launched a crowd-funding scheme and others suggested they were ready to boycott the race, said: “We don’t want begging bowls. If people can’t afford to be in Formula One they have to find something else to do.” But Ecclestone apologised in Abu Dhabi on Saturday during a meeting with Force India, Lotus and Sauber.
Ecclestone and Donald Mackenzie, the chairman of CVC Capital Partners, the sport’s majority shareholders, invited the three teams to a meeting before qualifying. Lotus’s owner, Gérard Lopez, said: “We brought it up and there was a retraction. They understand you can call a beggar a beggar if he is doing nothing for his money. That is not the case for us. They heard and saw loud and clear or arguments.”
Force India’s Vijay Mallya said: “I made the point very clearly that any such unparliamentary language did not do good for Formula One and all the stakeholders, particularly the sponsors. If someone holding a rather important position in Formula One makes a disparaging remark, it has to have consequences. The inference that those who are paid to be here and who do not pay to be here have made some very arrogant and disparaging remarks.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber’s team principal, added: “When you call us beggars, what are the beggars saying? We are saying cut costs and trying to explain to fans that you cannot have a F1 team without spending £300m-400m. If that is a beggar, no one outside will understand that. If you look at the figures, we are beyond begging.”
But the trio said that the “penny had dropped” with CVC and Ecclestone and they expected talks on the future finances of F1 to continue over the next few days.
