We get it, Bernie, you don’t like Lewis Hamilton.
The 96-year-old ex-Formula 1 CEO has again been criticising the sport’s most successful driver, this time over his move to Ferrari.
Bernie Ecclestone left his role as F1’s head in 2017 with Hamilton at his peak, having three world titles under his belt and four more would be on their way at Mercedes.
With Hamilton such a key figure in bringing F1 into the 21st century, the pair regularly clashed, with Ecclestone once banning him from using Snapchat, and later criticising his dominance.
The back and forth has continued ever since, although it’s mainly been back, with Ecclestone saying Hamilton ‘didn’t deserve’ his knighthood in 2021.
The business magnate has now piped up again ahead of the 2025 season, criticising not only Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, but his dress sense.
“I don’t think Lewis will get the same attention at Ferrari,” he told The Telegraph.
“Firstly, the team are happy with Charles Leclerc, his team-mate. Leclerc speaks their language [he’s fluent in Italian], so they’ll be looking after him.
“Even if Lewis does well, there’ll still be a lot of enemies, because he has suddenly arrived. It’s not the age with drivers, it’s how long they have been doing the same thing.
“I have thought with Lewis, ‘He’s getting tired. He has lost motivation’. If he had never won a world championship, it might be different, because then there would be an incentive to win one. But he has won seven.
“He has a lot of talent as a driver. As much as people credit him with? No, but still enough to win races.”
Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari was arguably the most anticipated driver switch in the sport’s history.
That’s not only because F1’s most successful driver and team are uniting, but that the deal was announced at the start of 2024, with fans having to wait 12 months to see him in red.
They now finally have, with an epic unveiling dominating sports news outside of F1, before he instantly banked plenty of money for the team’s new sponsors.
Ecclestone, though, wasn’t a fan of who the whole announcement was handled.
“Lewis gets himself up front in a way where you can dislike him,” he said.
“How a guy who has won a few world titles and has a few dollars in the bank can dress the way he dresses? I’m not a fan of that.
“I don’t know why he does all this other nonsense. He needs to get out of the music business and whatever else… He won’t last that long [at Ferrari].”