SportBusiness.com

Car makers 'to take over F1'

Leading Formula One car makers could acquire the broadcasting rights to the sport from media giant Kirch, according to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine.

"The board will consider any proposals from the banks as long as they are in tune with the interests of the car maker," an unidentified person at the car makers' holding company told the paper.

Kirch currently owns a 58 percent stake in SLEC, the company that holds the broadcasting rights to F1.

The car makers' consortium, GPWC Holding BV, is owned by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Ferrari and Renault.

Speaking about the situation at the San Marino Grand Prix yesterday, Max Mosley, FIA president said: "Formula One doesn't get money from Kirch, Kirch gets money from Formula One. So Formula One is not in the unhappy situation of football, of wondering where the money is going to come from.

"We have the right of veto if those rights were sold to some undesirable organisation. We have the right to veto and obviously we would excercise that right if we thought that the interests of motor sport in general and Formula One in particular were lkely to be damaged.

"But in the nature of things, somebody is going to want to continue to show Formula One on free-to-air television worldwide and on pay-per-view also worldwide, and whoever does that will try to do a good job. It shouldn't matter too much wh odoes it as long as they do it sensibly and we will confront the question as it arises. But there is no immediate anxiety."