Bernie: A car dealer would run F1 better

BERNIE ECCLESTONE has claimed that Formula One would be better off run by a used car salesman than by chief executive Chase Carey. The two men are at loggerheads after Ecclestone said in a TV interview broadcast on Friday that black people are often more racist than white people. He has since clarified his position and said he has never met a black person he didn’t like. But Carey’s Formula One organisation were quick to distance themselves from former head Ecclestone, stating that the 89-year-old’s original remarks had no place in the sport or society. Now Ecclestone, who began selling cars in Bexleyheath, has hit back at his American successor, saying: ‘Chase should try to run the company properly. ‘A problem for him is that he has never before been in a position of running something where he has his money invested. ‘When I was running things, we had a look at who could take over if I got knocked over or died. We tried to find people. But what we needed was another used car dealer. ‘A dealer — that’s what Chase isn’t. They could have had Chase involved for sure, but they needed a dealer in there. Not Ross Brawn — he’s not a dealer — as No 2 Ross is a friend, but you need someone who can handle all the different things.’ Carey, 66, has worked hard to draw up the first part of the season — an eight-race European swing for starters, starting in Austria on Sunday — after the pandemic pulled apart the original calendar. He plans to finalise a full schedule of between 15 and 18 races soon. But Ecclestone said: ‘I would have gone with eight races, enough for a world championship, then looked to next year.’