Sepang, Malaysia: The future of Formula One was being shaped in the Malaysian Grand Prix paddock on Saturday night as three of the most important men in the sport met for high-level talks.

Bernie Ecclestone brought together Donald Mackenzie, the affable but publicity-shy head of F1’s owners CVC, and Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal whom he has nominated as his preferred successor.

For more than an hour the trio spoke animatedly around a table in the Red Bull hospitality area, passing documents between them before Mackenzie and Ecclestone left together to return to their five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur for further discussions.

Neither man would make any comment as they left the track. With Ecclestone, 83, due to commute to Germany twice a week from next month for a criminal trial over an alleged bribe he paid to a German banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, the sport is inevitably going through its largest period of flux.

The transformation will be immediate if Ecclestone is sent to jail, with 10 years the maximum sentence available to the court.

Mackenzie, chairman of the sport’s major shareholders CVC, must therefore make plans in case he loses the services of Ecclestone, his chief executive. He has already said that he would sack him if found guilty.

Ecclestone has devised his own ideal solution with Horner, who is 40 and a close friend, working with him to learn the job and gradually taking over.

Another board member confirmed that Horner was the only serious contender for the post, after a number of other names were rejected.

There is also the chance that Ecclestone will buy back a controlling interest in the sport, either with the help of Red Bull’s owner, the Austrian fizzy drinks billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, or more likely other investors.

The fact he has been talking down the sport — complaining about the new, quieter engines — has added to the belief that he is seeking to reduce its value to buy it at an advantageous price.

While Lewis Hamilton’s drive to pole was a sparkling display, F1 itself is entering a trying period over the next month.

Can the volume be turned up on the whispering engines?

How will the alleged fuel-flow pressure violation that saw Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix be resolved in an appeal hearing on April 14? How will such a technical subject be digested by the watching public?

“It’s always a big few weeks for Formula One,” said the 1996 world champion Damon Hill wryly. “It creates its own dramas around the relatively simple task of making cars go round the race track. But what makes this more important than normal is that the sport is in transition but nobody is sure where it is transiting to.

“Bernie has defied everyone and everything, but age is clearly an issue for some — it is a question that needs to be addressed. I can imagine him doing a few more years if things work out as he would wish.

“It’s more about Bernie’s style. The sport needs to think about the future rather than just the immediate need to make money when it comes at a cost to the sport’s long-term interests.”

At least the engine noise should improve for TV viewers with the help of better strategically placed microphones.

Hill said: “It just needs to be translated to television. Some of the sound is quite beautiful, distinctive — a hint of a Spitfire. It is those parts rather than the rattly bits that we need to get over on television.”