We have already seen that F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is prepared to fight when the FIA tries to make changes which he does not approve of to his beloved Formula 1. His opposition to engine downsizing didn't manage to keep the current V8 engines on the rulebooks for the future, but he did manage to block the proposed four-cylinder engine from becoming official. Ecclestone has now directed his ire at the 2014 rule that cars must use electric power only while in the pits.

His stated reason for opposing the rule is safety concerns, saying that "people could be killed because they won't hear the cars coming". It is true that, with so much rushed activity going on at the same time in the pits, many crew members need to rely on the noise made by the engines to keep them out of harm's way. Of course, this would be an easily correctable problem, as there are any number of ways to make a car generate noise, but we suspect that safety isn't actually Ecclestone's primary reason for opposing the rule.

Statements made while he was fighting engine changes suggest that his opposition stems from the belief that these "green" rule changes dilute the purity of the sport, without actually making much difference in F1's carbon footprint. There is something to this point, the fuel savings would not be very significant, and with the International Le Mans Cup doing more to promote fuel-efficient technology than F1 ever could, one has to wonder what the point of a pseudo-green F1 would even be. Ecclestone's (and many fans) worry is that, in the FIA's quest to make F1 relevant to fashionable environmental consciousness, it will be made irrelevant to motorsports.