Campaign to add Bernie Eccelstone as reject driver

[GinShaiman]

1958
Monaco DNQ
Silverstone DNS
Surely this qualifies him as an F! reject???

Once he is in there then the campaign moves on to Tiff Needell, loved in the UK as drift king, former Top Gear presenter and current Fifth Gear foil to Jason Plato.

[GinShaiman]

Show your support by replying no matter how short (no insult intended to Bernie's height).

[tristan1117]

He should have come back when he bought Brabham.

[Life w12]

He should become a reject just for what he has done to the sport of Formula One let alone his driving career

[crazydude1992]

Yeah, add him!

[TomWazzleshaw]

Now how long will this profile be...

[Ben Gilbert]

It should be hugely long (this is Bernie's profile after all, so if it were printable, it would be taller than him), but written in minute font, to reflect the fact that thanks in part to his actions, F1 is now governed by the small print.

[CarlosFerreira]

A lost talent, probably suited for today's F1 driving, that penalises drivers weighting more than a 10-year old.

[Yannick]

When Bernie Ecclestone tried to entered his two attempts at racing in F1 world championship events, he was owner of the team Connaught, whose cars he also drove during his qualifying runs. So he probably just tried out himself as a racing driver because he wanted another car of his team in the field. Or is there any other info about him racing in lower formulae? And wasn't he in the business of selling used cars (and whatnot else?) before being a team owner?
First and foremost, Bernie Ecclestone is a businessman, and his achievements as a driver or team owner don't come anywhere close to those of his as a businessman, even though he was quite successful as a team owner, too.

Still, his short career stint as a driver is kind of interesting enough to justify a huge profile. Is he the only team owner in F1 who pulled his team out of F1 (Brabham in 1988) not because of financial troubles (which is the most common reason) but because he completely lost interest in being a team owner? Couldn't he just have hired a managing director instead? This withdrawal for one whole season effectively ended the team in the long run.

Another point that the Bernie profile could focus on is his connection to all of the reject drivers that raced for his teams Connaught and Motor Racing Developments (Brabham). Corrado Fabi substituting for his brother Teo Fabi in 1984, who was busy in the US American CART series, as well as in F1, wasn't much of a help to defending F1 champion Nelson Piquet, was he?
The only similar pairing I could think of from recent years is the duo of Damon Hill and Pedro Diniz at Arrows in 1997.

[Irisado]

Yes, I agree that Bernie Ecclestone needs a reject profile, after all, he's arguably one of the least successful drivers ever to sit in a Grand Prix car (drivers who have driven in just one race have performed better than Ecclestone did in two, Hasemi and Winklehock spring immediately to mind). Besides, I really do think that Ecclestone is highly deserving of reject status, in light of his personality if nothing else.

[dr-baker]

It doesn't really ultimately matter what he's done since (although much of it has been rejectful, even if he has made it a multi-billion dollar sport - which has led to the current political stand-off between the FIA and teams) but to qualify as an F1 Reject relies solely on your results on the track and Bernie is a reject. End of.

[Debaser]

He's a bona fide reject, failed miserably as a driver. Make a profile!!!

[watka]

Ecclestone to come back to F1 as the ultimate pay driver! He's light enough!

[TomWazzleshaw]

Ecclestone to come back to F1 as the ultimate pay driver! He's light enough!

He's also got quite a bit of dough

[Yannick]

I wonder when was the last time he's been at the wheel of a race car. In the 1970s, helping with pushing it from the trailer into the garage maybe?

[shinji]

He's more than a reject, he's bloody ruined the whole sport (oh yes, I said bloody).
Would be a fantastic read.

[Henrique]

I wonder when was the last time he's been at the wheel of a race car. In the 1970s, helping with pushing it from the trailer into the garage maybe?

Well, he has quite an impressive race car collection. I'm sure he probably sits on one of them once in a while, just to get the feel of it.

[thehemogoblin]

I wonder when was the last time he's been at the wheel of a race car. In the 1970s, helping with pushing it from the trailer into the garage maybe?

Well, he has quite an impressive race car collection. I'm sure he probably sits on one of them once in a while, just to get the feel of it.

... which would work better if he could reach the pedals.

[LionZoo]

If I remember correctly, didn't Bernie get a profile before the site was hacked?

[thehemogoblin]

If I remember correctly, didn't Bernie get a profile before the site was hacked?

No. The long-standing Ecclestone policy is something akin to "He'll get his profile right when we get servers big enough to hold all of the information."

[Waris]

Whoa! He actually qualified at Silverstone?

But yeah, though he's theoretically definitely eligible, any useful F1 Rejects profile on him would have to be centered heavily on the circumstances surrounding his two vague entries, rather than the stuff everyone already knows. And that information seems to me very hard to obtain, unless you would ask the man himself...

[Irisado]

Whoa! He actually qualified at Silverstone?
And that information seems to me very hard to obtain, unless you would ask the man himself...

I somehow don't think that Ecclestone is going to agree to talk about his driving 'career' . He never answers a question at the best of times, so if he's asked about something in which he wasn't successful, you can just imagine how he will completely bat the question away.

[GinShaiman]

I'm not sure if Bernie actually got in the car at all for the British Grand Prix, he may just have been listed as an entrant. As someone previous stated there's not a lot of info out there on his driving career.