Bruiser Bernie calls the shots

Bernie Ecclestone described negotiations with the British Racing Drivers Club, the owners of Silverstone, as like "dealing with a gentleman's club which is a bit short of gentlemen."

Which seemed a bit rich since the BRDC must have felt that stepping into Bernie's den has been like being thrown in with a pit bull. They must have known what was coming for everything that the sport has learned about Bernard Charles Ecclestone has warned it that there is nothing very gentlemanly about his ruthless approach to getting what he wants.

To a 73-year-old who has built Formula One from an afterthought series of semiamateur races to the multimillion pound sporting brand that every country feels it must have, there isn't and never has been any room for sentiment.

Just after the war, he went into business trading in spare parts for motor bikes and reckons that is where he learned to "cut out the rubbish and get down to facts" about deal-making. Sixty years on, he reckons the rubbish is being spouted by the BRDC and the facts are simply these - "They say they can't afford my terms. Fine. They are buying. I am selling and I'm not exactly short of customers."

In other words, Ecclestone has been so successful in building up Formula One into a modern sporting phenomenon that you either drive alongside with him or get lapped. Who needs Britain when China has just come calling and when Russia, India, you name it, are looking for a piece of such lucrative action?

Ecclestone's control of his world is a lesson in entrepreneurial nous but is based at heart on his deep knowledge of all aspects of the racing game and its personnel. As a man who looked after the driver Jochen Rindt before running his own team, he has always been more skilled in the art of man management than the comic-fiendish public image would have it.