Bernie Ecclestone has been told to work with F1 teams "to un-crap" the sport by Force India team principal Vijay Mallya.
During Friday's FIA press conference at Silverstone which featured a number of team principals, the team representatives were asked if they would expect the chief executive of their companies to be fired if they described their car or product as "crap".
The question was referring to comments attributed to Bernie Ecclestone who claimed he had been left with a "crap" product in the form of the current power units.
"He shouldn’t be selling the product if he thought it was crap," Mallya said. "But considering that he sells the product – that he calls crap and makes billions out of it – he needs to work with the participants to un-crap it!"
The question was a follow-up to an earlier one asking why teams are quick to blame the media for negative headlines in F1 but less willing to criticise Ecclestone for such comments.
Lotus CEO Matthew Carter refuted such claims, saying Ecclestone doesn't create negativity but simply responds to it.
"I think the negativity does come from the press," Carter said. "I honestly do. And I think… I presume you’re referring to Mr Ecclestone when you say the negative comes from him. I think he reacts to what is written in the press.
"I think that Bernie tries to encourage the sport, he tries to make the sport be more appealing to the fans: the fans read what you guys write. The fans listen to what Bernie says, I agree, but ultimately they will read your stories and if your stories are negative, they will read those and they won’t read the positive."
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