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[Liquid]

Bernard was the chief pot stirrer long before Horner.

I had taken for granted how nice the past few years without him and his ridiculous 'ideas' had been.

 

[McLaren]

Bernard was the chief pot stirrer long before Horner.

From the things I've read & seen linked about Bernie in the last month alone (on the subreddit), he makes Horner look completely tame & acceptable. Had no idea the man said some really controversial stuff at times.

 

[Grayfox]

Who else but:

View attachment 1102077

Pretty sure the FIA can punish teams for doing such things.

 

[DG_Silva]

From the things I've read & seen linked about Bernie in the last month alone (on the subreddit), he makes Horner look completely tame & acceptable. Had no idea the man said some really controversial stuff at times.

At times, particularly at the start and end of his tenure, he was positively annihilistic. I don't think there have been many others who had lost sight so badly of the good they intended to in the pursuit of pure greed. There's a reason why they called him the Poison Dwarf.

'I've said before that I don't much like democracy. Nothing gets done...' Bernie Ecclestone

 

[Rossell2]

It's worth mentioning he's praised Hitler more than once.

 

[Liquid]

It's worth mentioning he's praised Hitler more than once.

Not quite, Ecclestone said Hitler was a man who was able to get things done, but he did specifically 'wonder out loud' if Hitler meant to do all the awful things he did or if he was just 'misled'.

Then in his 'apology' to the Jewish World Congress he said "they" should have sorted all the banks out (this was 2007-08 financial crisis time) because they have a lot of influence.

 

[GingerBredMan]

I’ll never forget when Bernie suggested adding sprinklers to tracks to simulate wet races. What a guy.

 

[GroupB]

Not to mention he had his thumb on the scale for Ferrari and was rather unapologetic about it.

 

[MatskiMonk]

'I've said before that I don't much like democracy. Nothing gets done...' Bernie Ecclestone

I've no doubt he was working on a peerage when he said this.

 

[Fat Tyre]

I’ll never forget when Bernie suggested adding sprinklers to tracks to simulate wet races. What a guy.

I remember that as well, must have been around '09. At the time it seemed crazy to me but considering that in Hollywood they use fake rain all the time and F1 seems to be more of a show than a sport...

 

[PeterJB]

I remember that as well, must have been around '09. At the time it seemed crazy to me but considering that in Hollywood they use fake rain all the time and F1 seems to be more of a show than a sport...

Which is interesting as back then we weren't short of wet races. There were five alone in 2008.

 

[Fat Tyre]

Which is interesting as back then we weren't short of wet races. There were five alone in 2008.

Well Joe Saward at the time wrote in his blog (actually he mentioned this several times) that usually it was a trick that old man had to keep F1 in the news headlines throughout the off season. He would normally just say something outlandish just to crate controversy and yes sometimes people would take it really seriously. I think the worst one was when he suggested there should be shortcuts and drivers should be forced to take them once per race or something along those lines in order to spice up the show.

 

[Samus]

That was the thing with Bernie, he said everything deadpan so only a few people knew when he was being serious and when he was taking the mick because he was bored of the interview or didn't like the interviewer.

 

[PeterJB]

Well Joe Saward at the time wrote in his blog (actually he mentioned this several times) that usually it was a trick that old man had to keep F1 in the news headlines throughout the off season. He would normally just say something outlandish just to crate controversy and yes sometimes people would take it really seriously. I think the worst one was when he suggested there should be shortcuts and drivers should be forced to take them once per race or something along those lines in order to spice up the show.

Interestingly enough half his crazy ideas just end up in Formula E anyway.

 

[DQuaN]

I can see this thread carrying on until March haha

I doubt it.

Oh wait...