Part 5 of our new Formula 1 series during the Corona crisis: “Greetings from Quarantine”. This time: Ex-Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone (89) has more time to think than usual. He currently lives on his large farm outside of Sao Paulo. The state has completely sealed off the former coffee plantation, the area of which would just fit into Lake Constance. Nobody comes in, nobody comes out. Unless for shopping. In an emergency by helicopter.
“I have a luxury problem, if anything”, the former Formula 1 boss is aware. “I do not have to be afraid of the virus. However, I do not have the feeling that there is a consensus among the local government on how to get the outbreak of the virus under control in this huge country with its many poor areas. But that is true for many politicians. “
The Briton is watching a lot of television at the moment, news channels from all over the world flicker on his screens. “What strikes me”, says Ecclestone: “How many politicians disagree in the crisis. Example USA: Trump says something that is revised only a short time later by a responsible person in New York. This creates mistrust among the population and uncertainty. What amazes me, on the other hand, is how, in Germany, politicians from a wide variety of parties are just forgetting their own views and speaking in one language. That’s how it should be.”
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“Because”, he philosophizes, “aren’t true heroes the ones who are afraid themselves but take away the fear of others? Exactly such people are needed in difficult times. You are rarely well positioned in Germany.”
Ecclestone is talking slowly and deliberately on the phone. He discovered slowness as a virtue, as a luxury that he never had in his life. Surprises and sudden events have always been his enemy. He is largely spared from them in his Brazilian quarantine. Only when his wife Fabiana sneaks up unnoticed from behind and suddenly touches his shoulders tenderly one of the largest sports marketers the world has ever seen does flinch.
“You shouldn’t scare me,” one hears him whispering to the dark-haired Brazilian, “think of my old heart!”
The truth is: the little Brit, whose fashionable beard makes him look as vital as if he had fallen into a fountain of youth, is still not afraid. Neither of death nor of life. Actually, he feels invulnerable since a German bomb exploded on an English field right next to him in World War II and he, a child who was just harvesting potatoes, not even got a scratch.
If he had learned something in life, it would be this: “You have to come to terms with every situation you cannot change as quickly as possible and then try to make the best of it.”
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He doesn’t miss anything. Not his power, not his fame. The little man with the great charisma, for whom Jagger “is my buddy Mick”, Sir McCartney “my friend Paul from Liverpool”, who is still enchanted by world stars and politicians, is hardly disturbed by anyone at the moment. His thoughts, which are still razor sharp, have not been interrupted by anyone for weeks.
He would have had to get used to dealing with himself for so long. “But,” he muses, “it’s not a problem. There’s always something to do on the farm. And I’ve never learned so much about chicken behavior.”
What makes him particularly happy: “When friends used to visit me on the farm, I would always send them to collect eggs in the morning to get our breakfast. Now I do it myself.”
CONTINUING TOMORROW! PART 2 OF OUR QUARANTINE SEQUENCE WITH BERNIE ECCLESTONE FOLLOWS ON SUNDAY ON THIS WEBSITE.
