Ecclestone doubles down on Putin support as Morgan hits back at ex-Formula 1 chief

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has doubled down on his backing of Russian president Vladimir Putin despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The 91-year-old received a fierce backlash on Thursday after insisitng he would still ‘take a bullet’ for close friend Putin and described the Russian president as a ‘first-class person’.

Ecclestone has been involved with F1 since the 1950s, currently ruling as Chairman Emeritus of the Formula One Group after stepping down as the organisation’s CEO in 2017.

His comments have been condemned across the sport, but the billionaire refused to back down during a conversation with TalkTV host Piers Morgan.

Ecclestone began the interview by stating: “I don’t regret my feeling for him. He’s not the person that’s being portrayed.”

He added: “I stand behind him. As far as I’m concerned he’s a good guy.

“I’ll take a bullet for somebody and stand behind him for what it was.

“I generally don’t know what he had in mind. I hope he also didn’t have in mind what’s actually happened. And I’ll be surprised if he did.”

Admitting he was ‘a little disappointed’ by the consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Ecclestone continued: “But what was the alternative? Either he pulls out or the other people surrender?”

Putin has been branded a war criminal by many western leaders – including UK prime minister Boris Johnson and US president Joe Biden – over Russia’s bombing of hospitals, apartment buildings, a shopping mall and a theatre housing children.

Ecclestone has also laid blame at the feet of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, pointing out his previous profession as a comedian and insisting a peaceful solution could have been found had he sat down with Putin for talks.

Morgan hit back at Ecclestone and described his comments as ‘shockingly naive’.

Piers said: “Well, the alternative is you don’t invade sovereign countries illegally and kill everybody.

“And to say you’re ‘a little disappointed’ by a murderous, genocidal rampage.

“Again, your use of language Bernie is extraordinary, ‘a little disappointed’ that he’s murdering innocent people every single day all day long?”

He added: “He’s invaded a sovereign country. He’s carried on waging this war for months and month.

“He’s slaughtered innocent mothers and children in Ukraine. He attacked a supermarket with a thousand civilians inside.

“The idea that this is something he didn’t mean to do is, I think, for the birds.

“I find it completely baffling that you think this is the right moment to say Vladimir Putin is a first-class person.”

Lewis Hamilton has called for Ecclestone to be censored, along with Sir Jackie Stewart, while insisting ‘enough is enough’.

The seven-time world champion was speaking ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix – days after a racial slur towards him emerged from 69-year-old Nelson Piquet.

Triple world champion Stewart, 83, said recently that the Brit should ‘resign’ after struggling for results this season – and Ecclestone’s comments had Hamilton questioning the platform for ‘older voices’.

“I don’t know why we are continuing to give these older voices a platform,” said Hamilton.

“They are speaking for our sport, but we are looking to go somewhere different and they are not representative of who we are now in the sport and where we are planning to go.

“If we are looking to grow our audiences in places like the US and South Africa, we need to be giving the younger people a platform that is more representative of today’s time and who we are trying to be.

“It is not just about one individual, or the use of that term (by Piquet), but the bigger picture.”