Formula 1: Ecclestone skeptical of News Corp and ironic about the teams

Bernie Ecclestone remains skeptical about the chances of News Corporation and Exor to buy Formula 1. The Englishman reiterated that he has had no contact with the new consortium.

“Nothing has changed,” Ecclestone declared in Istanbul. “At the moment Murdoch is trying to take over the rest of their shares in Sky and they've been doing it for three years so they have a lot of practice in doing things and not being successful.”

To those who asked him if there will soon be contacts for the purchase of F1, Ecclestone replied: “Why don't you ask CVC? They are the shareholders."

Then a joke: “It would be nice, wouldn't it? They (Exor, ed.) are already involved, they are the owners of Ferrari."

Ecclestone also ruled out the possibility of a new parallel series, laying the foundations for a new Concorde Pact: “These discussions have always taken place at every renewal of the Pact, and we have signed five or six of them. Normal game between the parties."

Then Ecclestone joked about the F1 teams who confirmed yesterday that they wanted to own a share of the category: “I usually go to a restaurant in London two or three times a week, it doesn't make much sense for me to go there and ask the owners to give me a share of the restaurant because I eat there. These people would look incredibly stupid in their trucks and uniforms if they didn't have tracks to race on. Ditto if I went to a restaurant and they didn't have food to serve me."