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Ecclestone: ''Under a dictator, at least you can get things done fast''

4 June 2020 at 06:59
Last update 4 June 2020 at 12:43
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton was the man who gave a clear signal to the rest of Formula 1 this week. Use your popularity to speak out about the problems in America and most of them praise his action.

Praise to Hamilton

"It's a good thatt Hamilton's is letting himself be heard. It's good that the drivers are now making themselves heard and that should remain the case,'' Bernie Ecclestone said to AFP press agency. Ecclestone made a statement against racism in the past by cancelling the South African Grand Prix because of the apartheid.

''I was surprised how long it took someone to worry about the death of a dark person. I withdrew the licence from South Africar regarding the apartheid. That was wrong and disgusting. Unfortunately racism hasn't completely disappeared since then'', says the former Formula 1 top man.

Dictator

Yet Ecclestone himself is not completely free of sins. As leader of F1, he chose to race in Bahrain in 2012, despite an uprising and riots. However, Ecclestone is of the opinion that that was different. ''They wanted to take the lead in the country and that is quite different from what is the case in South Africa and America'', says Ecclestone who has a peculiar political preference.

''Apart from all the terrible things he's done, Hitler did a lot,'' Ecclestone said in a 2009 New York Times interview, for example. "I'm not the one who believes in democracy. I believe in a dictatorship and I didn't mean to adore Hitler, but I'm talking about the things that can happen quickly under such leadership,'' Ecclestone concluded eleven years later.