Bernie Ecclestone exclusive interview
On being a dad again at 90 and why he would ban taking a knee in F1
There will be plenty of young talent on the grid when Formula One kicks off its season in Bahrain on Sunday. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, both 23, will be looking to deny Lewis Hamilton a winning start as he sets his sights on a record eighth drivers’ crown this year. Fans, meanwhile, will be eager to get a first look at Michael Schumacher’s 22-year-old son Mick, who will be making his F1 bow for Haas.
There could also be some pretty old talent on the Sakhir grid. Bernie Ecclestone is weighing up an invitation from the Crown Prince of Bahrain to attend the season-opener. “It’s very kind of him,” says the sport’s former chief executive from his home in Switzerland. “I’m thinking about it. I’m lucky enough to be able to fly there in my plane, which is less hassle.”
Ecclestone, who has not been to a race since Abu Dhabi in 2019, would need to clear it first with his wife, Fabiana. Having become a father for the fourth time during lockdown, the 90-year-old is on childcare duty these days. When we speak he is just back from a shopping trip with his eight-month-old son, Ace.
“It’s been a big change for me but an interesting change,” Ecclestone says of becoming a father again. “I’m enjoying being a dad again. It’s good to wake up to see what the little devil has been up to. It’s keeping me young at heart, anyway.”
Ecclestone, who is also a greatgrandfather as well as a grandfather many times over from his first and second marriages, has always been a prolific creator. He says he remains “busy, busy, busy” with his work, although that does not officially involve F1 any more.
Ecclestone was effectively banned from the sport last year after falling out with owner Liberty Media, notably over comments he made regarding the Black Lives Matter protests, which Hamilton labelled “uneducated and ignorant”.
But one senses that, if anything, he is becoming more rather than less involved again as he enters his 10th decade.
Ecclestone says he speaks most weeks with Formula One’s new chief executive Stefano Domenicali, the former Ferrari team principal, “sorting” problems for him as they arise (“If he gets stuck with anything, he gives me a bell and I put it right if I can”).
And he remains as opinionated and unguarded as ever about the way in which the sport is being run. From his insistence that Hamilton is being “used” by the Black Lives Matter movement, to Mercedes’ continued stranglehold on F1, which he says is far worse than anything seen in the Ferrari/schumacher years, to the “lack of characters” in the sport these days, to why he believes F1 should go back to screaming V10s but lacks “the balls” do so, Ecclestone has a view on everything. He just cannot help himself.
First, on the subject of diversity in the sport, and those controversial remarks he made last year, Ecclestone is unapologetic. He stands by his claim that F1 is not inherently racist, insisting teams would be “falling over themselves to put a black driver in their cars” if they showed the requisite talent, adding that “the same applies to female drivers, too”. But he says he does not like seeing the sport used as a “political tool”.
“If I’d still been around there wouldn’t have been anyone wearing [anti-racism] T-shirts on the podium, that’s for sure,” Ecclestone says.
“One hundred per cent, there wouldn’t have been this business of kneeling before races. I agree the sport should do more to encourage diversity, but it shouldn’t be used as a [political] tool.”
That will sound rather convenient to many. Ecclestone has always been happy to put business first. It will surprise no one to learn he is delighted to see Saudi Arabia on the calendar, saying that those who called for a boycott are hypocrites. “After that journalist [was murdered], everyone was saying, ‘This is disgusting. Nobody should go there’. In two years it’s forgotten,” he says. “They make a lot of fuss over things for the wrong reasons; for political reasons.”
In any case, Ecclestone says he regrets that Hamilton reacted the way he did. “I don’t think he really understood what I was saying,” he suggests.
“I agree we need to give more people a chance. Don’t forget, I was the first person to put a black guy [Willy T Ribbs] in a Formula One car. And I supported him and have supported an awful lot of black people. But Lewis is entitled to his view.
“But I’ve said to his father, ‘Lewis needs to be careful’, because he’s being used by the people who are supporting this Black Lives Matter and they are taking a lot of money from it. And nobody knows where it goes.”
If that opinion is likely to elicit a weary roll of the eyes from many in the sport, then Ecclestone’s views on Mercedes’ dominance are likely to receive more support.
“I think the most important thing in Formula One is that it’s competitive,” he says. “For the past 10 years, you could hardly say that. I mean, when you go to a race you know full well who’s going to be on pole and who is going to win.”
Was that not the case when Ferrari and Schumacher were dominant? “I don’t think you ever thought, ‘100 per cent they’re going to be on pole and they’re probably going to win’,” Ecclestone says. “Listen, Toto [Wolff] and Mercedes have done a wonderful job, but I don’t know what the German word is for ‘budget’ because there isn’t one. I don’t think they had one.”
‘I was the first person to put a black guy in a Formula One car and I supported him’
Ecclestone is hopeful that the new cost cap will make things closer, as will technical regulation changes due next year. But what he really wants is more entertainment. “In 20 years’ time’ people won’t look back and talk about the past 10 years,” he says.
Many will find it more than a bit rich that Ecclestone, who created the conditions in which the sport now operates, should be so critical of where F1 finds itself. But he is adamant the owners and the FIA (the sport’s governing body) have taken a wrong turn.
“People ask me if F1 will go electric,” he says. “If they had the balls, they would go back to normally aspirated 10-cylinder engines. Make a lot of noise. We’re in showbusiness, after all. Some of the manufacturers would leave – I don’t think Ferrari would – but the entertainment would go up and the promoters would sell more tickets and pay teams more money. I doubt they’ll do it, though.”
Would he like to go back and do it himself? Ecclestone says he is not sure he would “be around long enough” to see it through.
Ecclestone’s own mortality has never been far from his thoughts in recent times, which have seen the passing of a number of former allies in the sport: Niki Lauda, who died in 2019 at the age of 70; Sir Stirling Moss last year aged 90; and most recently Murray Walker, the former commentator, aged 97.
“It does affect you,” he admits. “It reminds me that I’m going to join them, probably earlier than I want to. I just feel sorry for people in F1 today who weren’t around in the
1960s and 1970s and 1980s. I’m not saying that it was right then or wrong now. I’m just saying it was different. We would all help each other out. If somebody had an engine problem and somebody else had a spare, they’d lend it to them. “We would sit down, Teddy Mayer or Colin Chapman or Bruce Mclaren. We would sit down and have dinner, or lunch or whatever. I suppose the world has changed. Formula One hasn’t changed on its own. The world has changed. “I was sorry about Murray. He did an awful lot to promote Formula One. A lovely guy.” Ecclestone allows himself a brief pause of reflection before that old warrior spirit takes over again. “But I hope to be around for a while still,” he says.