In an interview published in today's The Times, Bernie Ecclestone, the 78-year-old British head honcho of Formula One racing, waxed psychotic on a number of things, including his frustration with modern political leaders and the benefits of tyranny. Some noteworthy quotes:

In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done...In the end he got lost, so he wasn't a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it . . . so either way he wasn't a dictator.

And:

We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He was the only one who could control that country. It was the same [with the Taliban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture. The Americans probably thought Bosnia was a town in Miami. There are people starving in Africa and we sit back and do nothing but we get involved in things we should leave alone.

But it's not all bad. Ecclestone, no stranger to controversy, did display an emerging sensitive side, expressing concern about racing fans "blacking up" to mock British driver Lewis Hamilton. This followed recent comments he made about how he "would love to have a good lady race driver and preferably black and Jewish too, but they might take maternity leave."

Reaction has been swift and understandably perplexed:

Stephen Pollard, Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said: "Mr Ecclestone is either an idiot or morally repulsive."

Can't it be both?

Hitler? He got things done, says Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone [The Times]
F1's Ecclestone criticized after Hitler comments [AP]

Button managed to keep it in his pants long enough to collect his trophy on the podium and then sit through a post-race debriefing with his crew, but immediately after that nonsense he sought out his underwear modeling special friend, Jessica Michibata, pulled her into a team office and ... well, I'm not sure that I can describe what happened next on a family blog, but I think the more tactful writers of The Sun can sort this out for us:

The playboy emerged with a sly grin and admitted: "It got a bit steamy in there."

An insider said: "His eyes were only for Jessica."

They held each other and kissed in the team office - it was clear he fancied popping a second cork.

I have no idea what that means, so never mind. Maybe Jenson can explain?

He said: "This is a fairytale - I'm chuffed to bits."

Well, that's just disgusting.

Jenson Button 'debriefs' girlfriend after F1 win [The Sun]
Media Waits While Racer "Celebrates" w/Girlfriend [SbB]

Hamilton is possibly the most polarizing figure in auto racing, especially in Spain, where his rivalry with Spanish driver Fernando Alonso has made him the brunt of taunts, much of it racist in nature. Last week a Spanish website called "pinchalaruedadeHamilton" (burst Hamilton's tires) surfaced, featuring an animated image of Interlagos that allowed users to leave nails and porcupines on the track for Hamilton's car to run over.

From Wikipedia:

Among hundreds of anti-Hamilton comments left since 2007, some included racial insults. Comments on the website included "Half-breed, kill yourself in your car," and "I hope you run over your dad in the first pit stop, Hamilton."

Said Hamilton in February, shortly after the "blackface" incident:

“The truth is I feel quite sad. I love [Spain], especially the city of Barcelona and this circuit, which is one of my three favourites. The Spanish people have always been very warm to me, and even though I thought something like this might happen, it wasn’t pleasant … But I’m still positive, as I still have great fans and friends in Spain."

Oh, and I had no idea this circuit was so lucrative. "Hamilton now set for a £100million annual salary, eclipsing the £31million that David Beckham earned last year and even surpassing the £72million earned this year by Tiger Woods."

Champ Lewis Hamilton Purrs Over Pussycat Nicole As The World's Hottest Couple Celebrate His F1 Title With Night Out [Daily Mail]

If you're not a Formula One Grand Prix fan — like, say, just about everybody — you might not know that Scott Speed, last weekend in Indianapolis, became the first American to drive Formula One in 12 years. It was a short ride, though; he crashed in the first lap.

But we're more impressed by Speed's desire to mess with foreign language media, as evidenced by this walk-by on Germany television. Der wienerschnitzel? We have to say, if we played sports, we'd constantly be saying innocently uncouth things to the non-English speaking media.