By Rob Harris / The Associated Press
FORMULA One (F1) commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday that the motorsport series could be sold this year and there are three interested buyers.
Speaking to the Associated Press (AP), the 84-year-old Ecclestone did not identify the potential new owners but said he wants to remain in his current role, running F1 on a day-to-day basis.
F1’s largest and controlling shareholder is currently investment fund CVC Capital Partners, whose cochairman is Donald Mackenzie.
When asked about the prospect of F1 being sold this year, Ecclestone told the AP by phone: “I think so, maybe this year. There are three people mentioned to buy. So it’s a case of whether CVC or Mr. Mackenzie wants to sell.”
Ecclestone earlier this year raised the prospect of buying back F1 himself.
“We’ll see,” Ecclestone said, when asked if he was one of the three interested parties.
The AP reported in June that F1 is a takeover target for Qatar Sports Investments, which has French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain in its investment portfolio and linked up with Miami Dolphins owner RSE Ventures to consider a bid.
“There has been a lot of interest,” Ecclestone said earlier Tuesday at the Camp Beckenbauer Global Summit in Austria. “I am surprised if one of them [don’t] buy very shortly.”
Ecclestone told the AP he is “very happy with the shareholders at the moment” and has no plans to retire.
“The people that I’ve spoken to, the people who are interested in buying the shares, have asked me if I would stay,” Ecclestone said, adding that his answer was “Yes.”
Ecclestone has a 5.3-percent stake in F1, while CVC owns 35.5 percent after initially gaining control of the sport in 2006 for around $2 billion.
Jenson Button, meanwhile, has decided against retirement and will remain with McLaren for the 2016 F1 season.
The 2009 world champion had been considering quitting after this season, but both sides announced on Thursday that he would continue for another year.
The team has struggled this season with new engine provider Honda, leaving Button’s future in doubt.
“Over the past month or so I have done quite a lot of thinking, and it is no secret that I was at one point in two minds about my future,” the 35-year-old British driver said.
Button, who has been with McLaren for six years, said he decided to stay after extensive talks with team chairman and CEO Ron Dennis.
“It has become clear to me that Ron is both utterly determined and uniquely equipped to lead our team through its current difficulties to great successes in the future,” Button said. “That gives me great confidence, and it is for that reason that, together, he and I have decided to continue our partnership.”
Teammate Fernando Alonso is also expected to stay with McLaren for 2016.
Button has a two-year contract with McLaren through 2016, but there were clauses allowing either side to terminate the deal after one year.
Dennis said “that option immediately became an irrelevance” after his talks with Button.
“That being the case, Jenson will race for McLaren-Honda next year, under the terms and conditions as set out in the two-year contract that both parties entered into a year ago,” he said.
McLaren is next-to-last in the constructors’ championship with 17 points this year. Alonso is 16th in the drivers’ championship with 11 points and Button is 18th with six.
“Granted, this year has not been an easy one for us, but we know what we need to do to improve things,” Button said.
Button’s last win came at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix (GP) in 2012. His best result this season was eighth place at the Monaco GP in May.
Button next season will become only the third driver in F1 history, after Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, to pass the milestone of more than 300 Grand Prix races.
In Moscow, the Russian government says it is in talks to extend its contract to host F1’s Russian Grand Prix beyond 2020 and wants to make it a night race.
At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said he wanted to follow the example of Singapore and attract more fans with a switch to the night format, according to state news agencies.
“At the current time, we are holding talks to extend the period of the contract, which ends in 2020, and also on moving, because these races are more popular, the race in Sochi from daytime to nighttime,” Kozak was quoted as saying.
The promoter for the Sochi race, Sergei Vorobyov, told R-Sport news agency that the switch to a night race would “most probably” happen in 2017. A night race next year is “unlikely,” he was quoted as saying.
F1’s first Russian GP was held in October 2014 at a track looping around some of the venues from last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The Russian GP is next up in the schedule on October 11.
Image credits: AP