SINGAPORE: Formula One's new owners have begun drawing up a shortlist of successors to Bernie Ecclestone after canvassing some of the leading teams in the past week.
Ecclestone, F1's impresario for four decades, has been given another three years in charge 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 pounds 6 billion takeover, has already met some of the sport's biggest teams since the deal was announced last week. Carey and Liberty have started compiling a list of candidates to follow Ecclestone, who will be 86 next month. It is expected they would split the job into sporting and commercial roles.
The Daily Telegraph understands one of the leading contenders for the sporting side is Martin Whitmarsh, the former team principal of McLaren and now chief executive of Ben Ainslie Racing. Ross Brawn, the ex-Ferrari and Mercedes boss, and Stefano Domenicali, another former team principal of Ferrari, are also in the frame.
For the commercial role, Zak Brown, the founder of Just Marketing International, the world's biggest sports marketing company, and F1's main sponsor finder, is thought to be the frontrunner. Alejandro Agag, the chief executive of Formula E, also owned by John Malone's Liberty, is under consideration as well.