I'm running things with my hands tied - Ecclestone

CVC's decision about selling formula one could change how Bernie Ecclestone runs the sport, the F1 supremo said on Tuesday. The potential sale has been on the cards for months, but Ecclestone is now urging CVC co-chairman Donald Mackenzie to make a decision. "I'm hoping that Donald Mackenzie will decide if he wants to dispose of the company or not," he said, "because if not we will be running it perhaps in a different way than we do today and we can make a lot of improvements."

Ecclestone, 85, has been openly critical of the hands-off approach of FIA president Jean Todt, and the fact the competing teams and manufacturers cannot agree a way forward. The Briton said recently that F1 has now reached the point at which he would not bother spending money on a ticket as a spectator.

"I have been running things with my hands tied behind my back a little bit," Ecclestone told Tuesday's business section of the Telegraph newspaper. "I'm still running the company like a public company," F1 business journalist Christian Sylt quoted him as saying. "There are lots of things I would love to do which I haven't done because CVC has been very clear that the company has to be run like a public company," he added.

Last week, it emerged that F1's board commissioned a report to look into the running of the sport, amid speculation it might urge them to plan for life after Ecclestone. "It was a report to see if the company needs help," Ecclestone confirmed on Tuesday. "The result is that we could do with some help with servicing our partners." (GMM)