Democracy at the cost of ’entertainment’ - Ecclestone

F1’s switch to "democracy" has been at the cost of "entertainment".

That is the view of the sport’s supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who is not hiding his frustration at being unable to tweak the current rulebook.

"Would I like to change something? I would like to change a lot of things!" he told the French broadcaster Canal Plus.

Ecclestone, 84, thinks the ’power unit’ era is too technically complex, having been designed to give car manufacturers a road-relevant challenge.

But the Briton insists: "We are in the entertainment business. We need to entertain the public."

Ecclestone is scathing of the current governance structure, where proposed rule changes must pass through various processes, usually with the widespread approval of the various stakeholders.

"Before, there was no democracy," he recalled. "I would talk to Mr (Enzo) Ferrari or (Colin) Chapman and we agreed to do something.

"Now with Jean Todt it is very democratic. He wants to please everyone. And when you have competitive teams, it is impossible to keep everybody happy.

"I can understand that Mercedes doesn’t want to change — in their place I would also want to leave it alone.

"What I should be able to say is ’Here are the rules. If you want to participate, great, if not, go away’. No matter what sort of team it is — bye!"