Formula One head says women 'wouldn’t be taken seriously' in the sport
British Business magnate Bernie Ecclestone may want to rethink that whole public speaking thing.
Ecclestone, chief executive of Formula One (F1) racing series, said women would not be "taken seriously" in the sport, among a slew of other controversial comments he made on Tuesday morning.
As part of a panel at during Advertising Week Europe, held in London, Ecclestone was asked whether women should have a greater role in F1 and said: “I don’t know whether a woman would physically be able to drive an F1 car quickly, and they wouldn’t be taken seriously.”
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Reporter Lucinda Southern noted that advertising giant Sir Martin Sorrell, who was interviewing Ecclestone, visibly winced after the comment.
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Unsurprisingly, the audience was not impressed.
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But Ecclestone didn't stop there, and by Tuesday afternoon his name was trending across Britain thanks to the questionable remarks.
He went on to voice his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he felt should be running Europe because of his ability to "get the job done."
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It's not the first time Ecclestone has put his foot in his mouth during an interview. In 2009 he courted controversy when he said he thought Adolf Hitler was a man who "was able to get things done" and felt that democracy has not worked out for Britain.
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Megan Specia was Mashable's Assistant Real-Time News Editor and joined the team in September 2014. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of New Hampshire after growing up in the Jersey 'burbs. She made her way to New York via a four year stopover in Dublin. Megan previously worked as a journalist and editor at Storyful in both Dublin and New York. Before all of that, though, her claim to fame was as head cake arranger and purveyor of all things sweet at Queen of Tarts cafe in Dublin, where she developed a serious addiction to macarons.
