Bernie Ecclestone is a straight talker, maybe that is the reason behind half of the controversies he gets into. The former F1 boss did not hold back when he talked about Elon Musk either. While he admired his work, the parallel he drew for his work ethic could rather seem unpleasant.
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Before taking over Twitter, Elon Musk’s ventures Tesla and SpaceX garnered support from many. Tesla proved to be such a game-changer that the company’s CEO gained the respect of a tough-to-please guy, Bernie Ecclestone. Bernie let his feelings known about Elon in an Autocar UK interview from 2020.
Ecclestone said, “I think he’s fantastic. He has done an incredible job. He’s a real ballsy guy. There were times when people thought Tesla was going to disappear in the morning. He saved it. He’s prepared to do what it takes.”
“I’m not a guy who believes in democracy. I believe in dictatorship. He’s a dictator, and that’s why things work. So much has been achieved by dictators, not because of a democracy,” he added.
While Ecclestone held a respectful opinion of Musk, he believed Tesla could not be compared to a brand like Ferrari. He thought Ferrari will never be forgotten, while Tesla won’t be special once more companies start making electric vehicles. Another F1 entity who revered Elon Musk for his innovations is none other than Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton hailed Elon Musk’s space tourism venture
Lewis Hamilton is into interstellar objects and space big time. We saw that when he posted photos released by NASA that were taken from the James Webb Space Telescope on his Instagram. Moreover, he is a huge adventure sports enthusiast. However, he felt he wouldn’t take the first few SpaceX’s space tourism flights. The F1 champion however lauded Musk’s project.
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In a 2020 interview with Gentleman’s Journal, Hamilton told, “I mean, I don’t have any current plans in place to go when they launch — I definitely wouldn’t go immediately, let’s put it that way. I wouldn’t go in the early stages of any of them.”
“But Elon, and what he’s doing with SpaceX and Tesla — he’s got such a great mind. He’s doing some incredible things. He’s such an intelligent man. And I would love to go to space, so I’ll keep a close eye on what he’s doing. There’s just so little that we know, isn’t there? So much that hasn’t been explored. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in our lifetimes.”
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It would be interesting to know how much Lewis and Bernie’s opinions on the latest Twitter CEO have changed after what has happened over the last few days.