Bernie Ecclestone has lobbed an apparent threat in the direction of F1’s new regime.
The sport’s long-time supremo was ousted amid the recent takeover by Liberty, replaced by new CEO Chase Carey and deputy chiefs Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches.
86-year-old Ecclestone, in turn, was given the largely honorary role of ’chairman emeritus’.
"I said the trouble with all sort of animals is if you want to kill them, you have to kill them — don’t wound them," Ecclestone has told the BBC motoring programme Top Gear.
Asked by interviewer Eddie Jordan if that is a "little message" to Liberty about his disempowered role, he answered: "It depends how people want to take meanings, doesn’t it?"
As for his new role as chairman emeritus, billionaire Ecclestone continued: "I don’t know. It’s a little bit like giving a hit man a gun and no bullets.
"But I’ve got enough money to buy the bullets."