Ecclestone gets out to Stroll: "With me he could start over"

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone thinks Lawrence Stroll's criticism in the media in recent days is unjustified. The 89-year-old Briton thinks Stroll should be very happy with the fact that Racing Point is competitive at all.

"Stroll doesn't have to be pissed off. Racing Point looked for the limit of the rules and paid the price. He can be happy that two years ago it was made so easy for him to get into Formula 1", says Ecclestone to Auto, Motor und Sport.

Stroll took over Force India mid-season in 2018 and changed the name of the team to Racing Point. At the time of the sale, Force India was on the brink of collapse and had almost been declared bankrupt.

Ecclestone tells that when he was still in charge of Formula 1 things would have been very different. "He was allowed to buy a team out of bankruptcy and got all the rights. If I was still the boss, he could start from scratch again when he changed the name."