LONDON, June 30 (PA Media/dpa/EP) –
Former Formula 1 president Bernie Ecclestone said he would “take a bullet” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he described as a “sensible” and “first class” person who is doing what he “believed was right” for his country. and blamed more of what is happening on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
“I would still take a bullet for him. I would rather it didn’t hurt, but if it does, I would still take a bullet because he is a first-class person. What he is doing is something that he believed was the right thing to do for Russia.” manager, 91, on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’.
Ecclestone said the war in Ukraine was “unintentional” and was critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Thus, when asked if he should have done more to prevent this war and not through a change in Putin’s actions, he was clear: “Absolutely.”
“If (Zelensky) had thought things through, he would have made a great effort to talk to Mr. Putin, who is a sensible person and who would have listened to him and probably would have done something about it,” Ecclestone remarked, stressing that the Ukrainian president he was a “comedian” before the war and that he “seems to want to continue that profession”.
Also, the British recognized that, “unfortunately”, everyone makes mistakes, “from time to time”, like Putin or himself. “When you make a mistake, you have to do your best to get out of it,” he said, without justifying Putin’s actions and the deaths of thousands of people, although he reiterated that “it was not intentional.”
Asked about the removal of the Russian Grand Prix from the Formula 1 calendar and the ban on Russian drivers, Ecclestone said he was not sure he had prevented it. “Certainly now I wouldn’t, and I think it’s a mistake, to prevent Russian athletes, obviously including drivers, from participating in their sport,” said the former F-1 boss.
“NELSON PIQUET WOULD NEVER COME OUT TO SAY ANYTHING BAD”
The Briton also took the opportunity to refer to the accusations of racist language by former Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet about Lewis Hamilton, whom he called “black” during an interview last year, although the triple world champion has already apologized and stressed that “never” was intended to “offend”, attributing it all to a mistranslation of the word used.
“Piquet would never come out and say anything bad. What probably happened, knowing Nelson as I do, as his daughter is Max Verstappen’s girlfriend, is that after seeing the accident he probably blew up then and somehow carried that forward. He was upset about the crash, thinking it was wrong and it was Lewis’ fault, but anyway, that’s probably what he thought and he would explode because of it.”