Bernie Ecclestone stepped into the 21st century yesterday after admitting there is a team attempting to raise Formula One’s profile on social media, before reiterating that his focus is solely on making money through TV revenue.

Last month, Ecclestone stated that he was “not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is,” claiming to be “too old-fashioned” and that he “couldn’t see any value in it.”

But after realising how many how many people use the F1 app, the motorsport supremo warmed to the idea and revealed that a team of eight people were fully committed to raising F1’s profile on social media.

However, until Ecclestone sees a way for the sport to make money from apps, keeping the fans watching on TV happy will continue to be his main priority.

He said: “I was surprised at the number of people that use our app. Seems it’s quite successful. I don’t know for what. What does social media do? It doesn’t make any money for a start.

“What we need to do is keep our TV audience up and help the promoters sell more tickets. That’s basically what we ought to do. I don’t know whether social media actually does that.

“Since people have been breaking my balls about social media I have been looking at this Twitter thing and I can’t see anything on there, except (Mercedes motorsport boss) Toto Wolff and one of my daughters.

“I thought: ‘Well, what does it do?’ There are a few people who put things on there but how does that help Formula One?”

Formula Ones Management digital media manager Marissa Pace was able to shed some light on Ecclestone’s future vision and how they hope to cash-in on social media.

Pace also confirmed that there would be a total revamp of the official website as well as how they are trying to use YouTube and Facebook — once it makes it past the legal team.

She said: “Mr Ecclestone asks me (how can F1 make money from social media) all the time and eventually we will.

“We are increasing our visibility, so we are starting from the grassroots and growing up.

“Our intention is definitely to keep viewers on TV, but to supplement that experience and make it more exciting, as well as getting people in the grandstands.”

Which led to Ecclestone say: “So you see, we’re doing something.”