Australian GP boss to retire if Ecclestone steps down
28 November, 2012
Nov.28 (GMM) Australian Grand Prix boss Ron Walker has promised to step down if F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone is no longer in charge of F1.
Embroiled in the ever-deepening Gerhard Gribkowsky corruption scandal, Ecclestone warned last week that his demise could cost the sport several key races.
“A few [race promoters] said to me, ‘if you’re not there, we’re not there’,” Ecclestone said. “That’s what the danger is.”
Walker, the chief of the Melbourne race promoter Australian Grand Prix Corporation and a long-time Ecclestone ally, is the first to put his hand up.
“When Bernie retires, then I will retire as well; and a number of other longstanding promoters that have been friends of Bernie’s will also,” he told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, published in Autoweek.
Walker clarified that the promoter exodus would not necessarily mean that those countries lose their grands prix.
But he added: “When Bernie goes, F1 will change. You won’t recognise the sport after Bernie goes because he has done it in his own way as unique as he can.”
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- German prosecutors set to charge Ecclestone
- Grand Prix circuits create union to have greater say
- Ecclestone: For me to retire means to die.
- Government threatens to axe Australian GP
- Australian GP chief calls on Mosley to quit
