Report: Ecclestone 'negotiated' with Mateschitz

Jun.22 - His quit threats still echoing around the paddock, Dietrich Mateschitz met quietly with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday.

"No photographers, no journalists -- even their staff kept a safe distance," reported Osterreich newspaper.

The report speculated that the main topic of conversation was not Mateschitz's quit threats, but the Austrian billionaire's interest in buying the marketing rights to the entire sport.

Former driver and F1 expert Alexander Wurz believes the scenario is quite possible.

"The question is: are we talking only about the marketing of formula one, or the billions of euros it would take to buy the sport?" Wurz said.

"I don't know if Mateschitz is ready to spend that sort of money."

What is clear to Wurz, however, is that "Who puts the money on the table, can also make the rules".

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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