Former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone claims that the sport is “too busy” to deal with racism in TV interview

In a bewildering interview with CNN, the former Formula One Chief executive Bernie Ecclestone claims that the sport is simply too busy to deal with the issue of race and that “black people are more racist than white people”.

The six-times F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has often spoken out against the racism and stigma he has experienced throughout his career and has since set up the Hamilton Commission to help improve the level of diversity in the sport as well as campaigning for the Black Lives Matters Movement. However, Ecclestone seemed to dismiss his experiences and doubted that racism affected the driver in any way.

When asked if enough had been done within Formula One to tackle to issue of racism, Ecclestone suggested that it wasn’t the responsibility of F1 to deal with racism, instead it is up to the public to “start thinking” as he would be “surprised if anyone in Formula One, had any concern about this”.

Despite praising Hamilton’s efforts, he was not convinced it makes any difference to the sport at all though he admitted that it might “make people think”, but that black people should also think in the same way about white people as they can be “more racist” than white people”.