Ex-F1 boss & ‘Putin pal’ states stance on Russian drivers
Ex-Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has backed the FIA's stance on allowing Russian drivers such as Nikita Mazepin to continue to compete, after calls for a blanket ban from sporting authorities elsewhere.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that all Russian and Belarusian athletes be suspended from international competition earlier this week – a stance which has been heeded by the likes of football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA.
On Wednesday, global motorsports ruling body the FIA – which governs Formula 1 – decided not to ban Russian drivers, and instead insisted that they must compete as neutrals.
Reacting to the news, Ecclestone said that "it was absolutely the right decision by the FIA."
"There are so many things being agreed by the world about this conflict between Russian and Ukraine," added the Brit, who enjoyed a four-decade rule over F1.
"But I don't think anybody has really thought it through, or got their heads around it.
"If there is a Russian driver in F1, what does it have to do with Russia fighting a war? There is no relationship there," the 91-year-old insisted.
"The Russian athletes have nothing to do with this conflict. They are not part of it, and they have never been part of it. They just happen to be Russian."
On the decision to cancel the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi on September 25, which Ecclestone agreed to add to the F1 calendar in a 2014 deal with Vladimir Putin, Ecclestone noted that the Formula One Group had decided "it was the right thing to do to cancel the race".
"But whether that was the right thing to do, I don't know?" he pondered. "There is no war in Russia."
"The FIA confirmed it was cancelled because the Formula One Group cancelled it. If nobody spoke about cancelling the race, I am sure the FIA wouldn't have done anything.
"He [Putin] is probably not happy at all with what is happening, but with all these things going on, and him being branded a criminal and with the world against him, I don't think he would care too much about a Formula One race," Ecclestone concluded.
Ecclestone's latest comments come a day after he said he found Putin to be a "very straightforward and honorable" person in a February 25 interview on Times Radio.
"He did exactly what he said he was going to do without any arguments," Ecclestone added.
Despite the decision by the FIA to clear Russian drivers to compete, motorsport bosses in the UK have said they will bar any drivers from the country from racing at British means.
That means Mazepin will miss the British Grand Prix set for Silverstone in July.
