“This poor guy in South Africa [Oscar Pistorius], for instance, has got more
interest because of what happened with him than when he was winning gold
medals. He won medals and afterwards nobody thought about him. If this case
hadn’t happened he would have been forgotten, probably.
“Same with these two teams. You need teams like Ferrari.
If you go anywhere and you say to somebody, ‘Ferrari’, they’ll know what
you’re talking about. If you say ‘Marussia’, they won’t.”
Ecclestone has previously talked about his dislike for social media, saying he
does not see why Formula One should be exposing itself to new platforms like
Twitter or Facebook. The sport has gradually expanded its presence on
Twitter this season, but Ecclestone said he could not see the reason for it.
He also said even more astonishingly that young fans are of no value to F1.
“I’m not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is,”
said Ecclestone. “I tried to find out but in any case I’m too
old-fashioned. I couldn’t see any value in it. And, I don’t know what the
so-called ‘young generation’ of today really wants. What is it?”
Asked directly if he saw no value in attracting a young audience, Ecclestone
said: “If you have a brand that you want to put in front of a few
hundred million people, I can do that easily for you on television.
“Now, you’re telling me I need to find a channel to get this 15-year-old
to watch Formula 1 because somebody wants to put out a new brand in front of
them? They are not going to be interested in the slightest bit.
“Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy
one? They can’t afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS — these kids don’t care
about banking. They haven’t got enough money to put in the bloody banks
anyway.
“That’s what I think. I don’t know why people want to get to the
so-called ‘young generation’. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell
them something? Most of these kids haven’t got any money.
“I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash. So,
there’s no point trying to reach these kids because they won’t buy any of
the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe
they should advertise with Disney.”
As always with Ecclestone interviews, there is an element of mischievousness
to his comments. He is a master and seasoned practitioner at contradicting
himself to further his ends. But the suggestion that Formula One does not
need younger fans will be particularly galling to many in the paddock, even
if deep down he may hold as less hard-line view.
Asked how social media could help the sport engage with fans, he said: “How
are you going to get all the fans to meet these young drivers, who don’t
even want to meet their girlfriends?”
Ecclestone also credited F1 with helping put nations on the map, saying he did
not know where Bahrain was before a race was staged there and that all
Singapore used to be was a “flight stop-over to go somewhere else. [With the
Singapore GP] that’s all changed.”
This is not the first time he has made some outspoken comments. He described
Adolf Hitler as a “man who could get things done”, before saying he had been
misunderstood and was referring to the economic crisis before Hitler’s
“appalling crimes”. Ecclestone also once compared women to “domestic
appliances”.