r/formuladank BWOAHHHHHHH Sep 22 '24

🌈 ben Sulayem 🌈 He wasn't perfect, but...

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u/truenofan86 Ze Rot Automobili Sep 22 '24

Bernie wouldn’t give community service for honesty, the whole reason for why he became F1’s head man was because he was fighting for non-constructor teams to have more rights and word in the sport.

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u/Corvid187 BWOAHHHHHHH Sep 22 '24

Then he did an absolutely shit job of it

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u/TWVer BWOAHHHHHHH Sep 22 '24

Being the teams representative in the FISA-FOCA war lead to him being victorious over FISA in terms of the commercial exploitation rights of F1.

FISA became FIA, whilst FOCA moved the commercial rights to then newly created FOG, which is now FOM.

Bernie used the aftermath of the FISA-FOCA war to create the separate F1 commercial rights holder entity, in charge of organizing the championship, raking in the sponsorship money from tracks and TV-rights, as well as paying the teams prize money.

By putting a friend (a fellow former F1 team owner) at the head of FIA, he effectively ruled the sport, until the sale to Liberty Media.

In his time, F1 was ran more like a shady used car dealership, but with a lot more money.