“I’d Take a Bullet for Him”: Ex- F1 CEO Empathizes With ‘First-Class Person’ Vladimir Putin

It has indeed been a controversy-ridden month of June for F1, with three-time world champion Nelson Piquet being the latest to join the guilty party. Of course, the buzz around the Brazilian and his allegedly racist comment has certainly dialed down by a fine margin since late Wednesday.

However, before we could even heave a sigh of relief, here’s another story that is starting to blow up in the motorsport community. This time, it’s the fire-starter, Bernie Ecclestone, former Formula One CEO.

The Briton has been quite active in the media over the past few weeks and has certainly garnered enough attention from the fans following his harsh remarks about Lewis Hamilton. There were a handful of bitter comments hurled at the seven-time world champion, which unsurprisingly led to an immense amount of backlash.

Barely weeks later, the British kingpin is back at it again, with another bunch of controversial comments. This time, it’s not Hamilton on the other side, and instead, it’s the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

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We’re aware of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And the fact that Ecclestone had once acknowledged his friendship with the Russian led the interviewer to bring up a very tricky question. But Ecclestone’s reply left the fans fuming.

What Bernie Ecclestone had to say about the Russian president

During an interview with Good Morning Britain, the interviewer asked if the 91-year-old’s friendship with Putin had taken a hit due to the latter’s recent actions against Ukraine.

“I’d still take a bullet for him,” Ecclestone replied. “He’s a first-class person and what he’s doing is something he’d believed was the right thing he’ll be doing for Russia. Unfortunately, he’s like a lot of business people, certainly like me, that we make mistakes from time to time. And when you make a mistake, you need to do the best you can to get out of it.”

Ecclestone further reckoned that Putin is a ‘sensible’ person and would’ve listened to the voice of Ukraine had the country’s president made a move. “I think if it’d been conducted properly… I mean they have the person in Ukraine. His profession, I understand, is used to be a comedian.”

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“And I think it seems he wants to continue that profession. Because I think if he’d have thought about things, he made the big enough effort to speak to Mr. Putin, who is a sensible person, would’ve listened to him and probably would’ve done something about it,” the Briton concluded.

Ecclestone’s admission leaves F1 fans enraged

Here are some of the reactions from the F1 community that surfaced on social media following this viral interview of Ecclestone.

What is your take on the comments made by Ecclestone? Let us know in the comments!