The irreverent 91-year-old former supremo of Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone has come out and said that he has no sympathy for the heartbreaking last-lap defeat for fellow Englishman Lewis Hamilton. He has dismissed conspiracy theories around Hamilton being robbed of his record-breaking 8th championship.
About being robbed - it's complete and utter nonsense. If you want to think about it carefully, on the first lap of that race he (Hamilton) went off the circuit and came back on again and Verstappen stayed on the circuit and did absolutely nothing wrong. Lewis wasn't punished at all for this so he shouldn't be complaining too much," said the 91-year-old billionaire citing the first lap incident between Hamilton and Verstappen.
Verstappen who was on pole in Abu Dhabi was slow to start and Hamilton overtook him immediately at the start, but then the dutchman made an aggressive but legal lunge which forced Hamilton off the track into the runoff area. Hamilton, however, didn't give back the place to Verstappen and zoomed ahead in his faster Mercedes.
Right before the end of the race, Hamilton was heard on the radio saying that they are "manipulating" things. Something that came out after the race as it wasn't broadcast live.
Bernie Ecclestone was the boss of F1 for more than 30 years
Photo Credit: AFP
"These things happen all the time in sports. We shouldn't blame the race director, he did exactly what was the right thing to do. I'd like to know who has been manipulating and is clever enough to do that," he added.
"This was just a set of circumstances that happened and it ended an incredible world championship that I'm sure everyone was more than happy to watch. I think an appeal would be the worst thing they (Mercedes) could do. It would look like they are bad losers," said the former F1 boss who was replaced by Liberty Media in 2017.
Ecclestone has never been a big fan of Hamilton, whom he has described as political. He also admitted he didn't want to see Michael Schumacher's record of 7-world titles not be broken. Schumacher was the first one to 7 title mark in 2004 and hasn't been seen publicly since 2013 when he had a horrific accident that has left the German in a vegetative state.
"It was very level. Two guys racing each other and one was quicker than the other one. It's a lot of nonsense. It took them four hours to decide if they had a case or not so it couldn't have been that clear. Max won it fair and square which is a good thing to do. People are just as happy to see a new face win it," revealed Ecclestone.
"I personally was happy that Lewis didn't win an eighth championship because of Michael Schumacher. I wouldn't like to see that broken," the billionaire added.
