During the torrential downpour over Circuit of the Americas on Saturday afternoon, Formula One Group’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone called a roundtable meeting with a group of journalists. The meeting began with Ecclestone stating his objective for the afternoon: to clear up what he’d seen in the media. In reaching that objective, Ecclestone opened the floor in what he called a very easy way -- “You can ask me any questions you want, and you will get an honest answer.” The only United States Grand Prix activity on Saturday consisted of the rainy third free practice session prior to the track’s postponed opening to the public, which allowed Ecclestone to remain at the huddled, private table for an hour answering a set of questions; all were considered fair game. Topics ranged from Red Bull’s lack of an engine to Ecclestone’s recent comments to the Russian media over not being “enthusiastic” about holding races in the U.S., with former F1 driver Niki Lauda and head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Toto Wolff, later joining the group. Red Bull’s lack of an engine for the 2016 season A majority of the meeting consisted of talk about Red Bull and its lack of an engine after deciding to leave longtime partner Renault at the conclusion of the season. Whispers of a Honda partnership circled, but Ecclestone said that McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis had veto power over the situation, and used it. “The honest answer is, at the moment, it would appear that Honda would be happy to give them an engine,” Ecclestone said. “Mr. (Ron) Dennis thinks they shouldn’t. “He doesn’t want Red Bull. Doesn’t want them. I think he believes they may be competitors. (Dennis) probably didn’t know (about the veto right), so I’m not blaming anybody. I said I’d tell you the facts, they are the facts.” Ecclestone addressed the facts about Honda as well, and the ladder-style agreement about supplying engines rooted in timing. “Honda have got an agreement with the FIA and myself,” Ecclestone said. “That we will allow them into F1 supplying engines to one team for the first year, two teams the second and three teams the third. “When they came in, the FIA said, ‘If we let you into Formula One, you’ve got to supply three teams.’ They said ‘As we’re a brand-new company, don’t think we could do that.’ So we said ‘OK, you supply one team for the first year.’” When asked about how far along team efforts were for Volkswagen’s potential partnership with Red Bull, Ecclestone said that he knew but would not disclose the information. Ecclestone also added that Red Bull hasn’t made a decision about staying in the series, which prompted questions over what would happen if the team couldn’t compete until 2017. As the new season approaches, the window for engine manufacturing for the 2016 continues to close. “If they wanted to stay out, for one year, two years, three years -- whatever they wanted -- we would obviously be happy to have them back,” Ecclestone said.

Potential for independent engine suppliers Independent engine suppliers were also on the housekeeping list, as the group discussed the movement to introduce independent suppliers of V6 twin turbos similar in size to IndyCar engines. “Well, there's a couple,” Ecclestone said. “The FIA will put out a press release on Monday or Tuesday.” With two types on engines, the F1 regulations will need adjusting -- something that Wolff said is in the works. “Introducing this new style of engine is a complex project, and that’s because it needs to be balanced against the current system,” Wolff said. “We need to change the regulation -- it’s a completely different technological approach. Can it be done? Yeah, it can be done. “There’s one common objective, is that we want a strong platform in Formula One. We want to have good competition and something which is not being spoken a lot is that we’ve decided to open up the engine rules for next year.” Ecclestone said that new regulations were expected for the 2017 season anyway, so the concept isn’t new. He added that “what’s being introduced will be awful lot cheaper than what it currently is,” but teams are still allowed to charge what they like for engines. “It has nothing to do with us what people charge,” Ecclestone said. “We have no control, and don’t want to. We tried to convince people that the amount of money that was necessary to spend in Formula One to be competitive is a lot too much, and people didn’t agree.” Lauda chimed in to say that “the economy of the whole thing is the problem,” and the discussion went to whether tiers of competition would be implemented due to more than one type of engine. "We used to have people running turbo engine and people running normally aspirated,” Ecclestone said. “It wasn't a two-tier system -- it was a choice. Whatever it is, I anticipate they will be able to continue running their engine and others running the other engine." As for whether existing manufacturers would be upset about the money put into development of the current engine, Ecclestone didn’t think they would have much of a reaction. “The money they spent, the R&D they spent, was for their road cars,” Ecclestone said. “They got more out of (developing the F1 engine) for their road cars, they say.” When asked about refueling possibilities for less economical engines, Ecclestone said that it can obviously be done. "Maybe we will have refueling again for those that want it,” Ecclestone said. “If people have an engine that is super efficient, they won't want to, obviously. They don't have to." Ferrari has a longtime veto power over technical rule changes, but Ecclestone thinks that the proposal for independent suppliers will go through because the Ferrari veto rights are “a bit complicated, actually.” "If by chance the FIA and commercial rights holders agree, it doesn’t make a lot of difference what other people vote,” Ecclestone said. “It’s called democracy.”

Ecclestone’s comments over not being enthusiastic about America

The next topic up for discussion was Ecclestone’s commentary on the U.S., which he didn’t seem to completely recall.

“What did I say? Not a big fan of America?” Ecclestone said.

Not very enthusiastic about America or Western democracy, according to the comments Ecclestone made to a Russian broadcaster over a week ago. But his views of racing in the U.S. were positive at COTA.

“It’s important -- we wish we had more races here,” Ecclestone said. “The only reason, history wise, we left America before at Watkins Glen was because -- it was a lovely guy who ran the thing, terrible memory, forgot to pay us.”

Ecclestone also cited payment problems putting a halt to F1’s former Long Beach stop, but said that the series would eventually like to have four races in America. The forward-looking list included southern California, but Ecclestone would not refer to a certain circuit when asked.

“Anywhere it doesn’t rain,” Ecclestone said. “A few places have come up. We’re trying to do a race in New Jersey, New York.”

As for how the negative commentary about the U.S. made its way into the media, Ecclestone cited the start of the recent conversation picked up by the Russian media.

“It started because we were talking about the necessity for, actually, a dictator, which turned out to be a leader,” Ecclestone said. “You’ve got good leaders, so I was wrong. The public don’t seem to agree with that, but anyway, that’s how it works. We’ll see when the election comes up.”

Dominant teams in F1, closing the gap in competition With Lewis Hamilton claiming nine wins in the 15 races so far this year and having a chance to clinch the title three races early at COTA, the roundtable went to discuss a prevalent topic in F1 this season: the disparity in competition. “It’s not Lewis’s fault, is it?” Ecclestone said. “He’s doing the best job he can. He does a fantastic job -- better job, in my opinion, outside the car than inside the car.” Ecclestone did say that the car has a bit of an advantage, joking that the “stupid idea” he had about double points might work this year. “We’d like to come here and not know who we believe is going to win the race,” Ecclestone said. “If it wasn’t for the rain [on Saturday afternoon], we’d all sell whatever we had and put our money on Lewis, which is not really a good way to go.” When asked whether Hamilton is the greatest driver in F1 history, Ecclestone hesitated. The F1 boss was more keen on putting Hamilton in the top five all time. “It’s difficult to assess these things,” Ecclestone said. “Different cars, different teams -- everything different. What (Hamilton) does for you guys and for us as a sport is incredible.”

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