JULY 14, 1997
The financial hawks gather
We have also heard suggestions in recent days that British American Tobacco - which is to sponsor a brand new F1 team in 1999 - may also be willing to buy into F1. This coincides with rumors in F1 circles that there is a consortium of big F1 sponsors getting together to offer Ecclestone a substantial sum of money for a share of the company - as a way of protecting their investment in F1. This makes particular sense for the cigarette companies which are becoming more and more controlled by government restrictions. The big players in F1 may decide to club together and try to use F1 as a tobacco promotional tool. This makes particular sense when one considers that most tobacco companies share brands around the world: Philip Morris, Gallahers and BAT, for example, all own rights to Benson & Hedges.
FIA President Max Mosley said at Silverstone that he had no objection to tobacco companies buying into the sport as the governing body of the sport has the right to cancel any of its contracts if it does not agree with the promoter appointed. Such a deal would undermine team influence as the majority depend on the sponsors for their income. In all probability a tobacco buy-out would only involve 50% of the company and Bernie Ecclestone would stay in charge.
Other big players who have been mentioned in connection to possible deals are the Agnelli Family - which control Ferrari - and British billionaire Joe Lewis. While all this is going on, negotiations with the teams are continuing over a new Concorde Agreement which will then enable the original idea of a float to go ahead. This is now moving along sensibly but the deal is not yet done.