F1 have condemned Bernie Ecclestone after he made comments in defence of Nelson Piquet and Russian president Vladimir Putin during a TV interview.
Ecclestone was the former Chief Executive of the Formula 1 Group, which managed the sport before its takeover by Liberty Media in 2017.
He also controlled the commercial rights of F1, and managed each F1 Grand Prix under the Concorde Agreement. During Ecclestone’s reign, it would be hard to pick out a more powerful man within the sport.
Ecclestone was invited on to ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday to speak to presenters Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway. The 91-year-old was primarily present to talk about the racist abuse aimed at Lewis Hamilton by three-time F1 world champion Piquet.
Ecclestone has been hit with significant backlash for comments made throughout the interview. He claimed that Hamilton should have “brushed [the racist abuse] aside”. He then defended Piquet: “He [Piquet] probably thinks lots of things he says which might upset us or might feel a little bit offensive…to him, it’s nothing. It’s just part of conversation.”
Discussion then turned to Russian president Vladimir Putin and his decision to invade Ukraine.
Ecclestone and Putin have been friends for a number of years. The ex-F1 supremo once called him “straightforward and honourable“.
But he took his views a step further on GMB. Ecclestone made a series of bizarre claims, including that he would “take a bullet” for the Russian president, before claiming that the Ukrainian president Zelenskyy could have avoided the war by talking to Putin.
He added: “What [Putin] is doing is something that he believed was the right thing he was doing for Russia.
“Unfortunately, he’s like a lot of business people, certainly like me, we make mistakes from time to time. When you’ve made the mistake, you have to do the best you can to get out of it.”
F1 condemn Bernie Ecclestone for Putin, Piquet defences
In response to Ecclestone’s interview, an F1 spokesperson said: “The comments made by Bernie Ecclestone are his personal views and are in very stark contrast to the position of the modern values of our sport.”
Earlier in the week, they released a statement on Piquet’s racist abuse towards Hamilton:
“Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society.
“Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect. His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty
