On his criticism of democracy:
It’s not the way to go in some cases. What I’ve said about democracy is that democracy these days in my opinion is not the way to go because the world changes so fast that by the time somebody proposes something, the opposition comes in and says no, and then it goes back again. And in the end there is a compromise because there has to be. So there’s a compromise and then really and truly you lose perhaps what the people wanted to do, whatever it was. So I think you need a good leader.Leadership. Because dictators normally rule by fear. You look at all the current dictators and they rule because of terrorizing people or something, where a good leader people should follow them because they are making a good example of what should happen.
On how the Formula 1 teams can never agree amongst themselves:
Well this is a big problem now. We have been two and a half years, or three years trying to sign this document. In the meantime there has been a void and Max has had to make decisions which should have been made by the people who are involved. And that is what has caused the trouble. So when they start trying to make an agreement, everybody is thinking what is good for them. And they wanted to change things. So in the end you have got what I said is bad for democracy, you have got a compromise. So the document when it is prepared will be a compromise.On racing in the first F1 race at Silverstone:
Yeah, I was in the race. In a Formula 3 car. With Stirling Moss and Harry Schell and Peter Collins. But I used to race motorcycles. So I’ve always raced something.On what fired him on through the years:
I think new challenges. And then having to overcome them. You know, in the old days when Mr. Ferrari was alive, although we used to argue about things, he was in the end a big supporter of me. Colin Chapman from Lotus, all those people in those days supported me. And we’ve always had skirmishes, or wars, or whatever.On people he admired or considered role models:
I’m a big, big, and have always been a big, big supporter of Mr. Ferrari, when he was alive, he was a special person. But in those days, I mean, they were entrepreneurs. So you know, he had the same sort of background as I had. He was a good used car dealer. And like Colin. All those people when we started Formula One bringing it to what it is. When it started to leave being a gentlemen’s sport that bought cars and raced them when it suited them for the weekend or didn’t race them, depending on what they wanted to do. We got rid of all that and got things a bit more professional.And I’m happy that, and lots of things I’ve done like with the TV and things. What I did in the early days for that, nobody had done. When we got all the races televised and made everybody broadcast them, now people in tennis and golf are doing the same things – which they didn’t do.
A lot of people say to me, I’d like to do what you do. It’s just a case of are they prepared to make the effort? You know, they want to go away for a month in July or something like that. I’m going to be in New York Sunday night and Monday morning I’m coming home. But I do this, I go to Australia for a day or something. Because I can’t afford to be away any longer.