Quote Originally Posted by Doc Austin View Post
Bernie isn't going to live forever. He's really not looking so good, which is to be expected considering his age and the level of stress he is under. I hope he gets off and disappears, and goes off somewhere to live his last days peacefully. We had a shit sport until Bernie took over, and even if he got rich and really did screw everyone, we are still a lot better off than if he never came along.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a shit sport, but Bernie did a great deal to level the playing field of the sport, and allow smaller teams a chance to compete. He also hired Sid Watkins, and took most of Sid's advice on safety issues, making the sport much safer than it had every been prior to them joining forces. Without Bernie, Sid, and several key drivers I personally think a lot more F1 drivers would have found an early grave.

As for the commercialization of the sport, he was the driving force IMO. A great many of us might not have ever seen more than a few races on TV if not for the promotion of the sport which made BE so wealthy. I can hardly fault him for introducing the sport to a much larger audience. And certainly the teams never suffered from getting all that TV revenue either.

Though he has had some ideas I don't care for, overall he had done a huge amount for the sport, and IMO probably more than any other single individual.



And in this current situation, I have no idea who is telling the truth. But I do think that if Bernie went to court to prove his innocence (if we were to assume that is the case) it would probably still do a lot more damage to the F1 image than if he took his current path. Being he's worth somewhere around 4-5 billion, 100 million dollars certainly isn't going to keep him from eating well by any means.