Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Bernie Ecclestone

What we need now is a Treaty of the World not a Treaty of Rome.

People want to build new circuits around the world and they say: 'We'll come to Silverstone and have a look how it's done', and I tell them to stay away.

They say Formula One is a market which it can't be, obviously. Our market is independent, it's a sport.

I also would rather race than strut red carpets in Hollywood - and thank God this is not my job - but also the team principals should be more prominent.

Before they go to the race, people want to think four or five guys could win, but now... Normally you'd say, "One of those two, and I think it's going to be Lewis [Hamiltom]," because that's what had been proved up to now - thank God that Nico [Rosberg] has won some races.

I'd rather get to the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash.

When people want to built new tracks, they want to look at Silverstone. We don't want it built like that. It's quite embarrassing.

I have 100 percent confidence in the German judicial system.

Anyone who doesn't speak English isn't worth speaking to

It's the best thing to happen to a sport, that you have a superstar. In football there is always something to write about the Beckhams, same as people want to write about Rooney or Hooney or whatever his bloody name is.

But when it comes to F1 I am a huge Lewis [Hamilton] fan because he is a super promoter of the sport. From a pure business aspect - sorry Nico if I have to say this - you are not so good for my business.

Take away Toto Wolff's Mercedes shirt and send Sebastian [Vettel] down a street - nobody would recognize him.

Actually I think I have forgotten how it was back then. Or probably not - I didn't qualify. There were only 16 cars in the race.

I won't be threatened or intimidated by anyone and I've always been prepared to do what is necessary to defend my interests.

I have earned the money and changed the nappies!

I always thought that dads in the old days where rather macho types who wouldn't get close to a baby, let alone change nappies.

It'd be good for the world if [Donald Trump] won.

Generally I still believe that Lewis [Hamilton] is the best champion that we have had in a long, long time. He manages to get to all different walks of life: red carpet, fashion business, and music - you name it.

I can't remember a single occasion when I have been kind to a journalist.

It's not as easy as that... it's disappointing to think that all these countries spend a lot of money trying to get the Olympics.

I think the way I do things would be difficult to teach somebody to do. They need to get another good used car dealer. That's what they need. Find a good car dealer.

My daughters have strong personalities. I'm close to them but they don't really need me to advise them on how to manage their lives and they don't ask me to do that.

If I feel like something's gonna be right, I invest in it, whatever it is.

I think we should SHUT UP, stop talking about negotiating anything, just be quiet and let things sort themselves out a little bit, and see what happens. Maybe there will be one or two other countries that think what Britain's done, we can do, and it seems the right way to go.

You can't make decisions if there are no charges or issues to deal with. So it's quite normal to wait until there is some reason to react.

Waiters are like hookers, never around when you want them.

If you're going to take the attitude, I don't think it will work, you will never do anything.

Women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.

[Maurizio Arrivabene is quite a character] but only for himself and not for Formula One.

I have no regrets about the amount of work I put into the sport. This is what I needed to do with my life.

[Donald] Trump, I think, is the sort of guy that if he maybe thought he'd made a little bit of a mistake, would find a way out, he wouldn't want to say, "Well, that's what I've done and I'm sticking to it, and I don't give a damn." Which is what the other people in America would be like.

You need to have proper management if you're going to move forward.

Probably when I gave things to Slavica [ Ecclestone], you know the shares of the company, and things like that. And she put it all in trust and the trust sold the shares. Um, would I turn the clock back if I could and so I still owned the company completely? Probably yes. It probably wasn't a good decision, but it was the decision that had to be made. Was I happy that I made it? No.

Our sport is ruled whether it's for good and bad, or whatever, for technical things. There's lots of teams out there that could and should have done better if they'd have had technical things. I suppose in the end that basically revolves around how much money they're gonna get.

I leave at half-time; by then you can see which way it's going. If you ask me to name five of our team, I couldn't. There's that guy who scores goals - Taarabt. Routledge I've heard of. All bloody nice guys but I don't mix with them so I don't know them well. I don't go in the dressing room. They can walk out of the showers and I feel I've got an inferiority complex.

I never neglected my daughters - quite the opposite - but I suppose I could have and should have spent more time with them.

I was delighted with Baku. People said I was completely mad; I was so happy when it all turned out all right.

My dad always took to his heels when a nappy change was necessary. I am so much looking forward to our child. It is such a wonderfully exciting time right now.

A wise man who was always helpful to me: Mr (Enzo) Ferrari. He always supported me.

I've never told anybody this, so I don't know if maybe you shouldn't print it, but I've made plans. I'm only going to continue doing this for another 25 years.

I simply scraped together all my experience and put it into the sport.

I think we don't need some people in Brussels trying to run countries that are some distance apart, who don't speak the same language, don't eat the same food. There's a bit of difference between, Holland, if you like, and Italy.

I think in the end officials in each country's judicial system will do what they believe is right because if they do something bad to somebody it's on their conscience for the rest of their lives.

You're born with certain gifts and you use them as best you can in life. You begin to learn and recognize that you have certain skills and aptitudes that you apply and use them to carry you forward.

If you say 'Good Morning' in America and it's five past twelve you end up with a lawsuit.

You have to hope that your opponents are unlucky. Never only rely on your own luck.

If somebody says, "You like putting out fires," and I say, "It's not a case of liking it, but I do put them out, and if there aren't fires left I make them, so I can put them out." It's what we do.

Bernie [Ecclestone] is the commercial rights holder so the more outgoing the champion is, the better. Of course. I also do think about our sport and want to make an effort - but in my own way. I am Nico [Rosberg] and not Lewis [Hamilton]!

As the cancellation of the German Grand Prix indicates, Germany is a terrible market for Formula One.

The banks don't have anything - no rights whatsoever. The banks are shareholders of SLEC, and SLEC has no rights. I am the CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration, which runs the business in F1. From this point of view, I own F1.

I suppose it's knowing when you've come up with an idea that works, when you've got it right, whatever it is.

Let's be realistic about that. I think Mercedes when it started the engine [development] didn't have a budget. It spent. And then lots of teams don't and can't. I mean Red Bull, for example, that won four world championships, didn't know the word "budget", and it's a case that it hadn't got the ability to have the engine that it should have had. Because somebody else [Mercedes] had the engine, wouldn't let them have it, because they didn't want competition.

[Donald] Trump would want to cosy up to him for sure, and he'd be right to do that. Which would be good for the world.

I'd rather the handshake for somebody that I can trust than a contract. Because you can read the bloody contract - perhaps if you made a little bit of a mistake writing it - in a way to suit you.

There is no recipe for that. Both [Nico Rosenberg and Lewis Hamilton] are very likely equally talented in the car, so the fight between the two happens between the ears - in the head.

Forget what others whisper in your ears. Most of that is pure rubbish that obstructs the view to what really is important. Always make your own decisions. That is what makes us human.

Don't forget I started looking at China a long time before any of those races happened. I always thought go east, not west.

You might have asked [about skill] of an artist or a musician or whatever... but with me it just happens.

Lewis [Hamilton] is a hero in the UK. The British love Formula One. Sebastian (Vettel) is also not doing much for F1. People hardly recognize him on the street.

If we didn't have Nico [Rosberg] and Lewis [Hamilton] in those cars - there's one or two guys down the field who in those cars would have delivered the same.