July 04, 2009

Darth Bernie Is An Idiot

I suppose it isn't any surprise to hear that Bernie Ecclestone is an idiot.  What is a surprise is just exactly how much of an idiot he is.

In 2005, Ecclestone insulted Danica Patrick and women racers in general saying that "(He's) got one of those wonderful ideas ... women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances."  A few years earlier, he said that a female racer "...would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys. ... What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish."

In 2008, he laughed off Spanish fans that wore blackface and were audibly shouting racist remarks at Lewis Hamilton, saying "I don't think it was anything to do with racism. There were a few people in Spain and that was probably beginning as a joke rather than anything abusive.  I think people look and read into things that are not there. All those things are all a bit of a joke and people are entitled to support who they want to support.  I don't see why people should have been (insulted by it). These things are people expressing themselves."

However, we've discovered that Darth Bernie believes that Adolph Hitler was a great leader who "got things done," and that "...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)."

He went on to say that Hitler really wasn't a dictator because he might have had to have been convinced to do "things".  Things like, oh, I dunno, the Holocaust, Bernie?  Obviously someone's never read Mein Kampf.

Darth Bernie said these things in the context of an interview regarding the Emperor Max Mosley, saying that he'd do a "super job leading Britain.  He's a good leader with people.  I don't think (Mosley's) background would be a problem.

It's curious that Ecclestone is talking about dictators like Hitler and Hussein while speaking about Mosley, who's recently been accused of being a dictator himself. 

I'd call all of this part of the F1 Bizarro Season that's ongoing, but to be honest it's truly par for the course for Ecclestone.  Sadly, this moron has at least as much power as Mosley in F1.


Adequate representation of me as I think about that fact.
Just once, just one time, I'd like to believe that the leaders of F1 weren't trying to kill off the sport.  Yet it's impossible for me to come to any other conclusion.  What the hell is going on here???

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 458 words, total size 3 kb.

1 I was a little confused about something: does he actually own F1?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 04, 2009 08:54 PM (+rSRq)

2 I saw a link to his comments earlier.. unf*cking believeable. Truly stupid on an epic scale. This will most certainly draw massive amounts of critiscm and negative attention to an already battered organization. What is with these guys and nazis? I thought Max getting spanked by gestapo hookers was the worst possible, now this?

Posted by: RobertV at July 04, 2009 10:15 PM (/WAWF)

3 It only seems like it. 

Formula One is really owned by a company called 'Formula One Group'.  The FOG is owned by a company called 'Delta Topco', which is in turn owned by CVC Capital Partners Fund (70% stake) and JP Morgan (20%).  The remaining 10% is owned by the Ecclestone family, less a few shares owned by Darth Bernie himself.

What he DOES own is Formula One Administration (FOA) and Formula One Management (FOM), which are companies under the FOG banner.

FOA is the commercial rights holder for F1.  As such, FOA is in charge of deciding what tracks will get F1 races, and how much the promoters will have to pay FOA for the honor (for the record, very few F1 races make any money at all for the promoter, which is why national and local governments help pay the bill).

 FOM is the media distributor for F1, as well as handling promotion of content.  FOM, in turn, owns Formula One Productions (FOP), which is responsible for the raw video feeds of all F1 races (clients, such as SPEED or the BBC, are responsible for announcers and such).

So, while he doesn't actually own F1, he does own just about anything involved with the moneymaking side of it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 04, 2009 10:16 PM (eVY9y)

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