I watched this in disbelief this morning on ITV. He was asked about the culture of racism amongst other things in F1 and whether he had any responsibility. He effectively said it was nothing to do with him even though he was the guiding light and figurehead of the sport. (I missed the early part of the interview so there may be more he said) He was then asked about his close friendship with Putin the murderer (my words there!) He replied that this war is entirely the fault of Zelensky, who is a comedian anyway, and that he didn't make any effort to talk to Putin and that's what caused the war, and that Putin is a good guy and that he (Ecclestone) would take a bullet for him. The interviewer (forget her name) reminded him about the thousands of troops and civilians who are dying in Ukraine, as well as the thousands of Russian troops. He replied that Putin is only doing what he thinks is right. A quite shocking viewpoint from a supposedly intelligent man I can only hope that he fulfils his promise
Bernie has been out of F1 for about 5 or 6 years now so maybe that's what he meant? Hard to comment without hearing the full context to be honest. F1 is nothing to do with him anymore. He should've condemned racism though.
To be honest, he comes across as a bellend so doesn't surprise me sadly. Plenty of supposedly intelligent people have ridiculous views.
He's a crazy old man with offensive views on Putin and Lewis Hamilton. What he thinks is the least of our worries though. It's never a good thing when USA try and police the world by having troops in someone elses country. Lots of countries helping Ukraine but Russia don't seem to be suffering. The value of their currency is now I believe higher than before the war started. Russians aren't brave enough to try and bump off Putin. This war is unaffordable but looks like it will go on years.
Speaking of bullets, I'd rifle one up Bernie's daughters. Well Tamara and Petra anyway, not sure about Deborah, maybe just a nosh.
On a more serious note regarding Ukraine though, whilst I fully understand and support the desire to help their war effort against Russia, I am somewhat concerned that the extra billion quid or whatever we've announced of weapons truly is money spanked up the wall. Everyone is acting as if these weapons will be used by highly trained professional soldiers on the front line. That's not going to happen though, is it?
Wonder what Ecclesrone's views are on Adolf Hitler Robert Mugabe and Saddam Hussein. Just misunderstood guys.
There you go. Interview 2009... Ecclestone stoked up controversy by claiming that Adolf Hitler was a man who "was able to get things done" and that “democracy has not worked out for Britain.” "In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.”
Much better than the GMB interview where at times Ben and Kate didn't know how to respond to Bernie's crazy views.
I've just seen the Daily Star's headline, which I thought was quite apt: 'Nurse, Bernie is out of bed again: Ecclestone in bizarre defence of be!!ends'