Ecclestone: I am the boss

Amid reports of Ross Brawn consulting for Liberty Media with regards to their Formula 1 investment, current chief Bernie Ecclestone has come out to make it quite clear who runs the show and insist that the former Mercedes, Brawn GP and Ferrari chief is not required.

Speaking to Marca, Ecclestone insisted, "I am the boss. This is not going to change. I can assure everyone that things are staying the way they are [in F1]."

Liberty have been vocal about the changes they are considering for the sport, but Ecclestone explained why big changes are unlikely to occur anytime soon, "It's very simple, we have the Concorde Agreement which is legally binding until 2020. Therefore until then teams and rules cannot and will not change."

"They [Liberty] is a shareholder, they do not control the company. They have 10 per cent of the company and for the moment I am still the CEO. It is the same company that has always been."

"If Liberty gets control then will be able to do whatever they want, as does anyone who owns a company. But at the moment they are not the owners, so they can't do whatever they want," added Ecclestone.

Nevertheless talk won't go away that Liberty are looking to ditch Ecclestone rather sooner than later, with several insiders predicting behind-the-scenes action to ramp up after the season ends i Abu Dhabi later this month.

Meanwhile Brawn has emerged from his 'fishing trip' and revealed, “I’m doing a little consulting to help them better understand F1 but that’s all.”

And acknowledged, “Liberty have not got far enough down the road to make any commitments yet."

Brawn, who is adamant he no longer has ambitions to be part of an F1 team, is now being linked to a top F1 management role and admitted recently to the BBC, “For sure, trying to help F1 become a better F1 would be appealing. It would be the one thing that could be interesting.

With regards to Ecclestone, Brawn said, “I have no issues with Bernie. What we have today is primarily down to Bernie’s creation. I just got frustrated because my approach is methodical and structured and Bernie’s is chaotic and impulsive. If those two things ever came together it would be an interesting combination.”

“Sometimes I find those idiosyncrasies, those approaches, amusing. I get round them in that way. I just keep battering at the door until it opens,” added Brawn.

When asked by Bild about Brawn becoming the new F1 chief, Ecclestone scoffed, "This is total nonsense. Ross cannot do anything for us right now. We don't need an engineer or someone with his kind of skills."