BERNIE DISAPPOINTED CHANDOK NOT HIRED

“I was hoping Vijay would give Karun a chance,” Ecclestone told India’s Hindustan Times newspaper. “And I’m a little disappointed that he has put the Italian guy in…
Whether he has to do this by contract I don’t know, but I would’ve liked to see Karun in the car for rest of the season.
We need to get Karun in the Formula 1 car quickly,” he said.
“And he has got the talent and the ability, so it’s a case of somebody just getting on and doing it now.
We haven’t seen him in a Formula 1 car to know but there’s no reason why he shouldn’t perform.”

Bernie: GP ticket prices set to fall

"The problem is the cost of running teams today is just crazy, but now we are getting the teams to come to their senses and reduce expenditure dramatically – or the necessity to spend money," Ecclestone said in an interview in the latest issue of F1 Racing magazine.
"When that happens we won’t have to produce so much money for them and, therefore, we can ask for less money for the promoter and the ticket prices will come down.
"We want that to happen as soon as possible."
"I still think we should be doing an awful lot more to make the drivers more exposed to the public," he said.
"We have a few things, like autograph sessions and things like that, so they are slowly coming round.
"The trouble is, if one or two of the top guys won’t do it, the other guys say, ‘Why should we if they won’t?’
"The incredible thing is, as I pointed out the other day, when Michael Schumacher was driving for Ferrari, he had a contract with a television company saying that he wouldn’t have an interview with anybody else until he had spoken to them," he said.

ECCLESTONE: F1 COUL DRIVE RENAULT OUT

“It is not good for the sport,” the 78-year-old went on, speaking to the Daily Mail. “It all seems very strange to me, but I do not know the truth. You hear of these things happening with jockeys and in football and it has led to all sorts of trouble. People seem to be spending money betting on F1 which is good, but they will not want to do that if they think something is wrong with the result.”
“This is not the sort of thing we need at the moment,” Formula One Management (FOM) chief executive Ecclestone told British newspaper The Times, adding that his QPR co-owner Briatore is 'well-and-truly upset' by the scandal. “I think it will p*ss off Renault for a start. Them leaving the sport is a danger, obviously. I mean, I hope that it isn't like that, but it's the sort of thing that might happen.

“What I know, I can't say, to be honest with you. All I know is that Flavio is insisting that he knows nothing about it. I think the FIA are looking into everything. They are trying to find out the reality. I suppose they would be upset if they found out that what people are assuming is true, is in fact true.”

Ecclestone says storm 'misunderstanding'

Bernie Ecclestone has blamed a “big misunderstanding” for the controversy caused by his comments about Adolf Hitler – although this has not stopped a senior German politician reportedly cancelling a planned meeting with the F1 supremo this weekend.

Ecclestone was condemned by politicians and Jewish organisations after saying in an interview with The Times newspaper on Saturday that Nazi leader Hitler was someone who was “able to get things done”, during a discussion on politics and dictators.

Speaking to the German press after his comments provoked a media storm, the commercial impresario said the story had come about as the result of a misunderstanding and that he had not meant to paint Hitler in a positive light.

“It was all a big misunderstanding,” he was quoted as saying by the German tabloid newspaper Bild.

“In the interview we were talking about structures, and how it can sometimes be good if something is treated stringently and without reservation in order to make decisions.

“It was then when I was asked: do I know any dictators?”

He added: “I wasn’t using Hitler as a positive example; I was just making the point that before his appalling crimes [during the war] that he successfully fought unemployment and an economic crisis.”

Asked if he wanted to apologise for his remarks, Ecclestone added: “It was never my intention or idea to hurt the feelings of any community.

“Many of my closest friends are Jews, and anyone that knows me, knows that I would never attack minorities.”

The German press is also reporting that Ecclestone’s remarks have caused the prime minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Guenther Oettinger, to pull out of a scheduled meeting with the Briton at the German Grand Prix this Sunday.

The pair had been due to meet to discuss Hockenheim's future on the F1 calendar, but the dpa news agency reports that Oettinger has now cancelled the planned talks.

"itv"

Bernie criticised for Hitler remarks

Bernie Ecclestone has triggered a new controversy for Formula 1 after making a series of outspoken comments about political issues - including his opinion of Adolf Hitler - in an interview with the Times newspaper.

The F1 rights-holder spoke mostly about politics in the interview, published yesterday, and questioned the value of democracy.

“If you have a look at a democracy it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries — including this one," Ecclestone told the newspaper.

"I like people who make up their minds.

"If you have to keep referring to your grandmother before you do anything I think that’s dumb.

"I make decisions, sometimes wrong, sometimes right — so long as you get more things right than wrong then that’s okay."

When pressed further on the issue, Ecclestone went on to refer to Nazi leader Hitler as a leader who 'got things done'.

"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," he said.

Ecclestone's remarks have been criticised by both politicians and leading Jewish organisations.

The F1 ringmaster has long held a reputation for making bold and controversial comments to the media, although his Hitler comments are set to trigger the biggest furore yet.

"itv"

Hitler? He got things done, says Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief, said yesterday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to “get things done”.

In an outspoken interview with The Times, the 78-year-old billionaire chastised contemporary politicians for their weakness and extolled the virtues of strong leadership.

Mr Ecclestone said: “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.

“In the end he got lost, so he wasn’t a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn’t a dictator.” He also rounded on democracy, claiming that “it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries — including this one [Britain]”.

Instead, Mr Ecclestone endorsed the concept of a government based on tyranny.

“Politicians are too worried about elections,” he said. “We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He was the only one who could control that country. It was the same [with the Taleban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture. The Americans probably thought Bosnia was a town in Miami. There are people starving in Africa and we sit back and do nothing but we get involved in things we should leave alone.”

Mr Ecclestone, who plunged the Blair Government into a row about donations in 1997 after it emerged that he had given the party £1 million, has a reputation for being outspoken. Last month he said that Formula One needed a “black, Jewish woman who, if possible, wins some races”.

In 2008 he provoked uproar when he suggested racist comments directed at Lewis Hamilton on websites in the build-up to the Brazilian Grand Prix “started as just a joke”. However, he told The Times yesterday that he was deeply concerned when he saw fans “blacking up” to mock Hamilton, an act he described as racist.

However, his latest comments could prove deeply damaging.

Claiming he likes “strong leaders”, such as Margaret Thatcher, Mr Ecclestone suggested that Max Mosley, his close friend, the president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), would make a good Prime Minister.

Mr Mosley, the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, was recently accused by Formula One racing teams of being a “dictator”.

Mr Ecclestone said: “I prefer strong leaders. Margaret Thatcher made decisions on the run and got the job done. She was the one who built this country up slowly. We’ve let it go down again. All these guys, Gordon and Tony, are trying to please everybody all the time.

“Max would do a super job. He’s a good leader with people. I don’t think his background would be a problem.”

Mr Ecclestone’s remarks last night drew a strong reaction from Jewish groups and politicians.

A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “Mr Ecclestone’s comments regarding Hitler, female, black and Jewish racing drivers, and dictatorships are quite bizarre. He says [in the interview], ‘Politics is not for me’, and we are inclined to agree.”

Stephen Pollard, Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said: “Mr Ecclestone is either an idiot or morally repulsive. Either he has no idea how stupid and offensive his views are or he does and deserves to be held in contempt by all decent people.”

Denis MacShane, the Labour MP and chairman of the all-party inquiry into anti-Semitism, and chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, condemned Mr Ecclestone’s decision to align himself to a “growing” anti-democracy movement.

“Of course democracy and the politicians are imperfect and full of fault,” he said.

“But this fashionable contempt for the right of people to elect their own leaders is frankly frightening.

“If Mr Ecclestone seriously thinks Hitler had to be persuaded to kill six million Jews, invade every European country and bomb London then he knows neither history and shows a complete lack of judgment.”

John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said: “These are extraordinary views and I’m appalled that anybody could hold them.”

"Timesonline.co.uk"