(CNN) — Bernie Ecclestone is credited with transforming Formula One into a multi-billion dollar global business with races in every corner of the world, but like many organizations, the sport he helped create has come under scrutiny after death. by George Floyd.
That scrutiny has come remarkably from Lewis Hamilton, six-time world champion and the first and only black driver to compete in Formula 1, who has been a powerful voice against racism after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last month. .
Hamilton joined the protests, created the Hamilton Commission to increase diversity in motorsport, and criticized F1’s “biggest stars” for “remaining silent … in the midst of injustice.”
For his part, Ecclestone, who was replaced as Formula One CEO in 2017 after nearly four decades in charge, praised how Hamilton has spoken out in favor of equality.
“Lewis is a little bit special,” Ecclestone, who currently has an advisory role with F1 as president emeritus, told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies.
“First, he’s very, very, very talented as a driver and now he seems to be extremely talented when he stands up and makes speeches.”
“This latest campaign he is campaigning for black people is wonderful. He is doing a great job and it is such easily recognizable people that people listen to. ”
Bernie Ecclestone and Lewis Hamilton shake hands before the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix.
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“Completely stupid all this to knock down statues”
However, Ecclestone does not believe that incentives like the Hamilton Commission have a tangible impact on the sport.
“I don’t think it will do anything good or bad for Formula One,” he said.
“It will simply make people think about what is most important. I think it is the same for everyone. People should think a little bit and say, ‘Well, what the hell. Someone is not the same as whites and blacks should think the same about whites. ‘
“In many cases, black people are more racist than whites,” Ecclestone said.
CNN asked Ecclestone about the claim and was unable to provide any concrete evidence for the unsubstantiated claim beyond saying that he had “noticed” it over the years.
The 89-year-old man went on to say that changing attitudes towards race will not be “easy”, scorning the demolition of the statues of Confederate figures, a move that Hamilton supported when the Edward Colston statue was demolished in the English city of Bristol .
“I think they need to start teaching them at school,” Ecclestone said.
“So they grow up without having to think about these things. I think it is completely stupid to remove all these statues. They should have left them there. Take the kids from school to look at them and say why the statues are there and what the people did and how bad they did. ”
Bernie Ecclestone was in charge of F1 for almost 40 years.
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During his time at the helm of F1, Ecclestone brought more races in new regions and attracted new interest in the sport.
The season before Liberty Media’s $ 8 billion acquisition in 2017 attracted 400 million unique viewers in 200 territories. The 2016 championship had 21 races in 21 countries and five continents.
In April, billionaire Ecclestone and his wife Fabiana Flosi, 44, announced they were expecting a baby. Ecclestone’s fourth child will be born this summer and when the announcement was made, he said he saw no difference “between being 89 and 29 years old.”
The British is no stranger to controversy.
In 2009, she praised Adolf Hitler for being “capable of doing things,” comments for which he later apologized, while also endorsing Vladimir Putin’s controversial policy towards homosexuals, saying that women should wear white “like all men. other appliances. “
“No one has done anything”
Hamilton, the current world champion, recently referred to F1 as a “white-dominated sport”, while the governing body has just launched the #WeRaceAsOne Initiative that seeks to combat the challenges of covid-19 and condemn racism and inequality.
Subsequently, a task force was created to increase diversity and inclusion in F1, along with a foundation to help fund internships and internships for underrepresented groups.
When asked if F1 should have done more to address the issue of diversity and inclusion, Ecclestone said: “I don’t think anyone has ever worried about that before.”
“I think it’s an important topic, but it’s been there for so long [y] nobody has done anything. Why did someone not do something two or three years ago?
“They are too busy trying to win races or find sponsors or something like that.”
In a recent article for The Times, Hamilton alluded to an incident in Spain in 2008 when fans made fun of him.
Ecclestone was criticized for not taking the situation seriously, although he later said he spoke to Hamilton’s father, Anthony, saying that “everything [estaba] good”.
“I’m surprised you are concerned,” Ecclestone said reflecting on the incident, adding that he never spoke to Hamilton himself, who was driving for McLaren at the time.
Hamilton celebrated his title last year.
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“I feel really unhappy if he took it seriously. I never thought I had. I didn’t think it would affect him, ”he said. “I don’t know why people did all of that anyway. Was it against him personally or was it what they thought? ”
Ribbs’ near arrival
As the owner of the Brabham racing team, Ecclestone invited Willie T. Ribbs to a test drive in Portugal in 1986, an audition for a place that could have made the American become F1’s first black driver.
In a recent interview with CNN Sport Davies presenter Ribbs, who competed on IndyCar and NASCAR, he spoke of Ecclestone in brilliant terms.
“I don’t even know if Formula One would exist now if it weren’t for Bernie Ecclestone,” Ribbs said. “He wanted me in the car. He wanted me in Formula One […] Its sponsors at the time were Italians. They wanted Italian drivers, and I totally respect that. I do not have any problem with that”.
“My goal was to be in Formula One, but Bernie Ecclestone made a statement because Bernie Ecclestone put the first man of color, the first black man, in a Formula 1 car.”
With the determination to increase diversity within the sport, the new F1 season begins.
The first race of the delayed start to the season will be in Austria on July 5, where Hamilton begins his quest for the seventh world championship title that would see him tie for Michael Schumacher’s record.
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