"This is the most Ecclestone thing ever": Fans react to former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone pleading guilty to fraud

Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone recently pleaded guilty to a massive fraud that included £400,000,000, which he held in a trust in Singapore and failed to declare for tax back in 2015. Hence, he has now been sentenced to 17 months in prison and suspended for two years.

Of course, this was massive news for many F1 fans, as Ecclestone has been one of the defining faces of the sport in the past. Bernie Ecclestone has now agreed to pay £653,000,000 to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

As soon as the news broke on October 12, it went viral on various social media platforms. Hundreds of fans, old and new, flocked to the posts reporting it and reacting to it. Most of them were not too surprised to see Bernie Ecclestone in this situation since he has been a part of many controversial incidents and even tax evasions since 2008.

Here are some of the reactions:

"This is the most Ecclestone thing ever"

"I wonder how long this trial will take to conclude because this is obviously a large sum of money and also quite a long time since it was not declared, July 2015. Will the HMRC have to do another "complex and worldwide" tax investigation to make sure nothing else was missed?"

"He's been arrogant, flippant and dismissive of any rules and laws all his life and has spent his life assuming he was above the law that's his main problem"

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Former F1 CEO on the current state of the sport

Former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone recently gave his views on the current state and overall spectacle of the sport. He pinpointed at the races held in the US, like the Miami GP, saying how crazy it feels to him.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, the 92-year-old said:

“I don’t know what Stefano (Domenicali)'s position is. I think he is a little bit more aware of what the people in America think. I think you can see that with the races in America that they are doing — which I think is completely mad. The one in Miami — the way they ran that was mad, trying to be American rather than the way I did it, which was trying to be pure Formula One as it was, rather than as it could be."

Furthermore, he hinted that F1 is drifting away from being traditional since Liberty Media took over. He said:

“Maybe they are completely right; maybe I was wrong trying to keep it more Formula One. I watch every practice session and every race and I look and I think, ‘My God are we trying to show Formula One or are we trying to show other things?’"

Of course, it is clear that F1 has changed quite a lot ever since Bernie Ecclestone left its helm back in 2017.