Formula One’s new owners have begun drawing up a shortlist of successors to Bernie Ecclestone after canvassing some of the sport’s leading teams in the last week.

Ecclestone, F1’s impresario for four decades, has been given another three years but many predict he will go long before then, perhaps at the end of this season, after struggling to work with the new owners, Liberty Media.

Chase Carey, the man Liberty have brought in as executive chairman after completing a £6 billion takeover, has already been in to see some of the sport’s biggest teams since the deal was announced last week.