How do you solve a problem like Bernie Ecclestone?

No, that’s not Andrew-Lloyd Webber’s newest West End hit, but a question everyone in Formula One – not least the sport’s owners, controlling shareholder CVC Capital Partners – has been looking to answer ever since Gerhard Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, convicted in a German court of accepting a cash bribe from Ecclestone.

Ecclestone, who turns 84 this year, also faces trial in Germany this April and could join Gribkowsky in the slammer should he be found guilty. Nothing is a formality – and you should never underestimate Ecclestone to get out of even the tightest corner – but if there were a time in his 40-year career running the sport where a succession plan was needed to be made, it was now.

So what exactly is the problem? It’s not that Formula One being badly run – on the contrary, Bernie has grown the sport into a commercial behemoth, with new countries being conquered, brands as eager as ever to get into the sport and major long-term broadcasting deals in place – the problem is that because Ecclestone has run the sport for so long, he has become the king deal-maker. So how do you go about replacing the irreplaceable, and establishing a corporate structure to a business that has thrived for so long without one?

In March’s issue of SportBusiness International we surveyed 40 or so leading names in the sport to see how they saw a Formula One without Bernie Ecclestone, and a few key trends became evident:

1) One person cannot replace him

CVC will have to employ a figurehead and chief executive to run the business, but it is unconceivable that one person will be able to take on the deal-making responsibilities that Ecclestone undertakes as chief executive of Formula One Management (FOM).

“You need three or four people to replace Bernie and do what he does on a day-to-day business,” said one former team owner. “It could be a mix of people from inside and outside the sport, one thing’s for sure – it can’t be one person.”

2) A successor doesn’t exist in the sport

At the end of last season, Ecclestone flippantly told reporters that Christian Horner, team principal of the Red Bull Racing team, would be his ideal successor.

Horner has undoubtedly achieved great success with his Red Bull team, but Formula One insiders believe that there is no natural successor to Ecclestone currently work in Formula One, otherwise it would be evident to everyone. Horner also told SportBusiness International that he “would never consider taking on Bernie’s role.”

3) Keeping the teams happy will be critical

Formula One team Ferrari has a veto of whoever is brought in to replace Ecclestone if they have held a senior executive position, or ownership interest in a team or team engine supplier, in the previous five years. CVC looks unlikely to do that, but it is clear that whoever comes in to lead Formula One has to have a healthy relationship with the teams.

Formula One teams have frequently threatened to break away from the sport to form their own series in the past – nearly always as a means of leveraging better commercial terms – but they are the most important stakeholder in Formula One and also the most likely to take advantage of a new person coming in to lead the sport.

4) Risk-takers won’t be brought in

It is highly unlikely that CVC will choose a maverick personality like Ecclestone to replace him. CVC and the other shareholders, after all, will be conscious that Formula One in the post-Ecclestone era will be something of an unknown entity and bringing in a new boss who is known for taking risky, albeit successful, business moves won’t be, well, worth the risk.

“Formula One needs to be run by risk-takers – someone like [Apple founder] Steve Jobs, someone who reads from the What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School book,” said a former FOM employee. “But headhunters don’t look for that type of person to head up a business that generates billions of dollars in revenues a year.”

See March’s issue of SportBusiness International for the full feature, published on March 1.