After the 2020 F1 season was temporarily announced that it would cancel the Australian opening game, the 2020 F1 season was completely shut down, and in the case that there was no way to get revenue from the Grand Prix, Bernie Ecclestone, former chairman of F1 operating group FOM, pointed out in an interview with the Daily Mail that F1 now "may come to a crossroads of survival."

The door closed, but the phone rang, the man who created the modern Formula one car. I asked him if the threat of the virus was the biggest threat to the sport he knew.

After a pause, he said, "Yes."

At the age of 89, he will not panic or be anxious. However, he is worried about the disruption of the Grand Prix, which will endanger nearly $2 billion a year in business.

So far, the first eight Grand Prix scheduled for the 2020 F1 season have been postponed or cancelled (Australia, Monaco), allowing the unveiling of this season to the Canadian Grand Prix scheduled for June 14. However, following the announcement of the postponement of the Goodwood Racing Festival on July 9-12, the following F1 British Grand Prix may not escape the same fate.

Although no team leader is willing to speak publicly, the Daily Mail has learned from senior sources that several teams, possibly all, are in discussions with their human resources departments and lawyers to put hundreds of employees on leave, possibly unpaid leave, to tide them over this difficult period. Most of the engineers have been arranged to cooperate with the British Government's "Pitlane" project to produce epidemic prevention equipment such as respirators.

In the past two weeks, seven UK-based F1 teams have responded to the government's call to use their resources to help produce ventilators. The joint efforts of these teams are known as the "Pit lane Program", which aims to maximize the resources and capabilities of each team, especially the core skills of the F1 team: rapid design, prototyping, testing and skilled assembly, as well as F1's unique rapid response capabilities.

Ecclestone also sees hope in the face of this unprecedented shock, but only if the sport follows strict rules-putting pragmatism ahead of rampant egoism. "optimistically, the epidemic has been brought under control within six months, but it is still not an easy task to resume F1 racing, and the preparations for the race are cumbersome," he said. "

"in addition, the weather is also a problem, people do not want to participate in the grand prix in extremely cold weather, and the biggest premise is whether the local government is willing to hold such a large-scale rally that may cause mass infection."

"in the end, even if all the above problems are solved, you still need to make sure that your team is still alive. for small teams like Williams, they need to pay their employees if they can't get income from the race. it's not easy for them."

For now, Chase Carey, the current chief executive of F1, says he hopes to host 15 to 18 races later this year. Carey succeeded Ecclestone after Free Media bought Ecclestone's F1 for £6 billion in January 2017. The board also gave him the flexibility to modify the calendar as he saw fit.

However, the Daily Mail also pointed out that FOM's statement may also have been made under pressure from various teams. In addition, FOM and FIA and the teams also discussed proposals to shorten the weekend trip of the Grand Prix to two days and three back-to-back races.

After the outbreak, F1 shares in the Nasdaq index fell 60% in a month, although the share price has rebounded by about 25% after the US government's economic stimulus policy, showing signs of recovery. but it's only back to where it was at the time of the acquisition. According to the Daily Mail, F1 Group could face a credit default risk of up to $2.9 billion.

The corollary of the introduction of a £150 million budget cap next season is that in the UK (seven of the 10 teams are based in the UK), from Williams' 650s to Mercedes' 1500, there will inevitably be a wave of engineer unemployment in F1.

"in the past, when the scale was not this large, we would try to provide low-interest working loans or free funds to tide over the financial problems of the team, but now it is completely different," says Bernie. "John Malone, the boss of the Free Media Group, is a shrewd businessman who may take this opportunity to assess the need to continue to hold F1 management rights. "

The new rules, originally due to be introduced in 2021, have been announced to be postponed until 2022, given the team's current cost savings. Bernie said that if he were a decision maker, he would not change the rules for three years.

"the biggest change I want to make is to add a Team champion, and the manufacturer and driver champions will not be affected in any way."

(press: the manufacturer champion is what we now refer to as the "team champion". Bernie's classification should be on a par with MotoGP or WEC.)

"then I will give the less well-off teams two chassis and two engines at a price of 30 million pounds a year (Ferrari and Mercedes cost more than 10 times that). Then I will set the rules according to the weight of the car and the engine capacity, which I know very well means that a small team with such a budget will have a chance to get to the podium and may even be lucky to win a race. "

"by the end of the season, the team that performs best under this budget will win the team championship."

As for whether the 89-year-old Ecclestone has any plans to buy back the right to operate from the free media, he said bluntly that "impossible".

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