Maybe he wants them to get behind him like they got behind Hitler.

Hopefully the extermination of Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone from F1.

Yeah: the other word I'd use is the 4 letter one starting with c: he's definitely being one of those as he has been most of his adult life.

That is totally wrong my friend.

What you are comparing him to, is very useful..... (if my memory serves me well)....

Whereas, Bernie can be likened to the bottom half of a mermaid.....

I don't believe Bernie is saying such things without a purpose.

Me neither, I daresay he will reveal the purpose in his own time, in his own way.

That's true: I look forward to the Honduran military announcing their next President with some trepidation in that case

Innacceptable. It is a pity that FOTA teams did not started a new series.

Ecclestone and Moxley having nazi partys and defending killings of million of people is just disgusting.
But, hey, they are not German (bad per definition) or Spanish (racist per press decision). They are old good English men. Sirs.

Let's wait and see again a double measurement treatment from anglosaxon press.

And we might just find out later today. The big news discovered during the week often seems to be saved for the Sunday papers and it has been a really quiet week...

I think you are all overestimating Bernie.

As far as I know he always comes out with a lot of "funny" statements whenever he's being interviewed. Whether he actually believes them, just wants to shock or is plain senile is up for debate.

Don't we all remember this one:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20022008/23/...f1-anymore.html

Well, he got his sex scandal wish fulfilled anyway, a couple of months later Max did his best to contribute...

I think he's being entirely truthful about the merits of dictatorships over democracy.

Not that this isn't something we couldn't have guessed about him, but it does further remove any doubt.

I also love the little insult at Americans.

"To F1 insiders and fans, this may well be the case, but judging by the reaction of the paper reviewer on Sky News this morning, his comments are being taken very seriously by everyone else. When journalists are calling into question the mental stability of those at the top of the sport, comparing Bernie's gaffe with Max's Chelsea flat romp, you have to wonder how much lower the public's perception of Formula 1 can get..."

I was part of the marketing team at Compaq that decided to enter F1 as Williams' sponsor. I recall the "due diligence" we did then and the long meetings about whether to enter as sponsor and who to sponsor. With that background, I know that many potential sponsors would NOT enter after statements like these.

Seriously, can you imagine the head af ANY reputable organization of any kind making statements like these? No, this is NOT funny. F1 has a deep-rooted sickness, or rather several serious sicknesses. Again, imagine you are a CMO (Chief Marekting Officer) of a major corporation. You make, oh . . . $10 million per year. Would YOU stake your reputation (not to mention your company's image) by asking your CEO/Board of Directors for millions of dollars/pounds to sponsor activities of an organization run by Max and Bernie? Let me help you out: NO.

What a d*ckhead.

Apart from what is obviously ignorant about his opinion, surely he knows very well how a dictator would deal with a person of his status/power.

As a rich businessman, Hitler would have kept him on his side for a little while, then had him shipped to a camp. Meanwhile Stalin would simply have had him shot. Too old and too skinny for Idi Amin.

I can see the point that there must be something better than democracy. Many events since the start of this millennium don't endear democracy.
It's rather funny how a large part of the press is quiet about the State of California for example. It's probably the prime example how democracy can fail and Iceland of course. Two areas that are de facto bankrupt and government agents being a prime factor in all of it.

But it ain't dictatorship that is better than democracy. Let Bernie live in his world however, he ain't going to change or bring us better ideas how to better govern this planet earth. After all F1 hasn't improved much over the years, and given some of the ideas he's been floating in recent years. I don't wonder at all.

In the end he's used to divide and conquer tactics. The signature of dictators..

The beauty of (true) democracy is that it tends to collapse after 100 years or so, the others seem to have a much shorter life-span.

The only time a dictator is good is when they are dead. The idea of FREEDOM brings you less government, not more.


Back to the topic at hand:
All Bernie has done is expose F1's dictator-type governance to the real world. I'd think Bernie, at his age, would realize that not anytime is it necessarially true that "any news is good news".

F1 is already looked upon as wealthy bourgeois wasting natural resources during the worst economic recession in 80-years...excellent work Bernie...keep it up and F1 will be buried so deep it will never rise again.

It's bernie having his fun, he loves playing with the press

And if we're being honest, Hitler did get things done! he did rebuild Germany though with an ideal and ultimate goal that was awful, there can be no denying that, but he certainally 'did' a lot

And i agree with him about blair and brown, they can't/couldn't do right for fear of doing wrong, thus we just bob along bailing water out of the ship, hoping something will work

You know when I see good people doing good things, and not hurting anyone in anyway, I love freedom. But when I see evil people doing bad things, and hurting others in various ways, I wish freedom was controlled in the world. Some times people are too free. It all depends on the people in any given circumstance of course.

The good people should have the most freedom, and the evil people should be controlled - In and out of jail by the way...

Just my take on things.

Who's good and who's evil?....and who makes that judgement?

first to throw stones and all...

I never said I was perfect. And I think you are wise enough it make the distinction between what's right and what's not. I would hope...common sense man!

In free societies we allow people to say whatever they like; then we allow them to live with it.

Well you are "Henry the 8th"!

Indeed I am! haha!

I'm completely offended on behalf of everyone else regarding this issue.

This isn't the first time Bernie has sung this song. This is from February 2008. He probably just added the Hitler reference to get a bit more press coverage.

"How does it feel to effectively own a whole sport?" I ask. "You are the sort of Napoleon of car racing."

He sighs theatrically. "In the old days it was easier to be dictatorial. But now in Formula One we have more of a democracy" - the word is expectorated like chewing tobacco.

Then he gives me a sly, sidelong look, which seems to imply that other people's opinions are something of which he takes scant notice.

"I hate democracy as a political system," Ecclestone continues. "It stops you getting things done. I think people should have decisions made for them."

As for some of the less palatable aspects of dictatorship, he remarks casually that "torture is just an old-fashioned way of getting things done".

With views like these, Ecclestone is probably wise to avoid interviews. But he charges on.


"A good dictator is better for a country than a democracy. Democracy in Britain leads to confusion and bad compromises. In a democracy, the Prime Minister is always influenced by someone or some group or the Press. I myself have never voted. What's the point?"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-...Ecclestone.html

The Germany that Hitler left behind was hardly a rebuilt but a destroyed country.

I am afraid Formula One will be in comparable state after Bernie and Max have been kicked out finally.

A restricted freedom is no freedom at all; its the pretense of freedom.

I think you get the jist of what I am saying, if jist is a word that exsists lol. Many people aren't concerned with the law and just go around wreaking havok coz the law is soft at times. Jail should be a deterrent as well, with bread and water in a cold dark cell at the most, so people won't want to ever be there, they by have the incentive to do no wrong! But that's in a perfect world scenario sadly. Even goverment officials are evil at times. That's how the world is sadly.

yes i agree, but up to the war he did take them out of the mess they were in, after that yeah we all know

and on a serious note i do worry that as time has passed people forget that all of that actually happened, its not just something in black and white footage and in books. The rise of the far right groups in europe is typical of this, usually with people saying "i don't agree with all their policies, but they've got a point about x" thats exactly how these things get started.

Well in a perfect world there'd be no evil in the first place! Hehe I quoted myself for once!

Hitler's rule led to millions being exterminated or killed in war but he liked dogs, he was very kind towards dogs.
I don't think he was good, look how God punished Hitler, as a dog lover he was brought back as a cat....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=bUlE3_vm9jA

Which one I don't know.....

haha insane! He does look like him! first one and the white one I mean lol at 0:13 and 0:20 seconds heck a few do!

My heart bleeds. These two senile idiots are continuosly casting a shadow of stupidity over a greatest motorsport on the earth.

Is it finally a time to say: "that's enough - please, retire"!?

That's great, it led me to this one too, the cat even has the hairstyle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjbKycubLCg&feature=fvw

Hehe yea! There are many funyn cat vids there. The angry cats ones are kinda cute lol

Let's not forget that to the general public Ecclestone is seen as 'Mr F1'. His ignorant and highly offensive comments are therefore very damaging to the sport and will not be treated as 'just a bit of fun' as some here dismiss them as. He is a figurehead. Mosley and his German prisoner camp role play with prostitutes has already brought the sport into disrepute. This will only cause further damage and rasie that issue once again (if we are to pretend that Ecclestone is smart, perhaps this is what he is hoping for). When the two most prominent men in the sport have either indirect or direct leanings to Naziism it does us no favours whatsoever. F1's chief 'promoter' is an admirer of Hitler. Wonderful.

I am not surprised however that Ecclestone has a distaste for democracy. Democratic governments are, by and large, answerable to the populations they serve. It's far easier for him to coax inflated cash sums out of Arabic kingdoms for races than it is for him to deal with elected officials who have to justify spending public cash.

Hey kids! This is fun?

nobody lives in a free society, at least no one that i am aware of. Free society = anarchy.
this is a guy that is a high profile figure negociating business deals with governments and government funded organisations. I think people are right that he is very well aware of who and what hitler was, but that just makes it worse. id love the german govt to refuse him entry next week

He should made to visit the death camps.

Well if truth be known, thats about how half the world's leaders control their countries. And a good chunk of them are our allies.

Looks like he's gonna get a pass on his latest comments. He knows what he can and can't say.

That's not giving him a pass but a cute way of saying the guy's an insensitive, classless jerk.

The Sum total of the thread demonstrates the same ignorance as Bernie, not surprising as most are armchair experts and have no practicable experience of what Bernie speaks, funny that we don't have massive amounts of North Korean forum participants to assist the debate!!

what a moron .. Prolong age makes some people do/say stupid things. its like their brain undevelops and they turn to toddlers. I think Bernie is almost at that stage..

Ah, you yourself have been a despot, then, unlike the rest of us?

Personally I think the conspiracy theory is good, that actually it's a subtle attack on Max.

Honestly, HONESTLY???

What the **** is wrong with these people, dead set on destroying the sport aren't they? How could he possibly give this type of interview, do they(Max and Bernie) really believe any publicity is good publicity?

Disgusting. Nicely done playing both the chauvinist and anti-semite card in one interview.

A little respect you dimwit.

Exactly. This basically paints the whole F1 being run by old nazi sadists to the outsiders. Yay!!!

Stupid timing given there is a German GP next week but he has always made tasteless tongue in cheek remarks and this is nothing new, par for the course

Or a subtle dig at Luca/FOTA for the dictator comments? - it's pretty obscure and could be taken either way, no doubt time will tell