And, he added, that though fellow-Briton Max Mosley would step down from his post as president of the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), later this year, he will remain in his job.
Reacting to a string of stories during the German Grand Prix at the weekend that suggested he was poised to retire and take an honorary position with CVC Capital, the company that owns the majority of the sport’s commercial rights, Ecclestone told reporters he was staying put.
“Any story suggesting I’m going anywhere is completely untrue. I don’t know where they came from,” he said. “I hope to have a Concorde Agreement in place by Wednesday. Max (Mosley) will be happy when we have it sorted. He will have achieved everything he set out to achieve including a new agreement and cost-cutting. He will then be in a position to do what he said he would do and step down. But as for me, I’ll be around for the future.”
If Ecclestone’s comments are followed by the signing of a new 2009 version of the Concorde Agreement, it will end this year’s feud between a group of eight rebel teams and the ruling body and kill off threats of a breakaway series.
The managing partner of CVC Donald Mackenzie confirmed Ecclestone’s claims. He told the autosport.com website: “Bernie Ecclestone will remain in post. There’s no question of moving him into an honorary position or upstairs. There has never been any doubt about that.
“There have been no meetings to discuss it. Bernie knows me well enough to know his position is not under threat. He runs the business and does so very well.”
He added that there had been concerns following Ecclestone’s recent ill-judged comments about Adolf Hitler, but this was no longer an issue. “We did not like what he said about Hitler. He knows that and it was dealt with. That’s the end of the matter.
There never was anything more to it than that.”
