Ecclestone praises Trump: 'Best thing that could happen to the world'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Bernie Ecclestone (94) reflects on his long and eventful life with striking honesty. The former Formula 1 boss admits that everything he ever did was for his own benefit. If others happened to gain from it, that was merely a side effect—not his intention, as he revealed in an interview with The Telegraph.
It's a statement that could have come right out of the mouth of Donald Trump, the new president of the United States. Trump exhibits the same authoritarian traits as Ecclestone did in running F1 in the past.
“Trump is the best thing that could happen to the world,” Ecclestone said. “As I’ve said right from day one, he is a dealer. He puts it like this: ‘OK, you don’t want me to do this? Well, this is what I want you to do. So, let’s do a deal. I’ll back off a little, but you have to wake up.’ He’s a good dealer.”
Ecclestone tried to arrange New York Grand Prix with 'Trump' branding
Ecclestone and Trump are no strangers to each other. Fifteen years ago, the Brit tried to organise a Grand Prix through the streets of Manhattan, and Trump helped him shape the idea. There was one condition: everything had to bear Trump's name. "I eventually said to him, ‘Do you know what? The only thing you haven’t asked to have your name on is toilet paper.’”
In any case, Ecclestone's respect for Trump is great. “I would love to have had him as a partner in my used-car business,” the Briton states.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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