Bernie: Drivers unhappy with Baku circuit can 'go home'

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Bernie Ecclestone has told any drivers unhappy with the Baku City Circuit can "go home" after complaints on Friday.

Following concerns from Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg about the run-off areas and pit entry in Baku, Lewis Hamilton said many F1 drivers "moan so much" and "want to take the all the character and life out of these tracks".

When asked about Hamilton's comments, Ecclestone replied: "I think he’s right.

"Well if they don’t wanna drive they don’t have to. It’s up to them. This is the circuit, don’t like then go home.

"This is the circuit, which I said it is a ballsy circuit and that’s it, if you don’t like it.

"One of them was complaining about, I think Nico [Rosberg], about the speed into the pitlane. So I said go and have a look and see if he’s got brakes on the car. Because it’s up to them to decide what speeds."

When it was put to Ecclestone the pit lane entry has since been changed following a driver meeting, he said it was always unlikely the circuit would be perfect for its first race.

"Yeah but not [changed] for any particular reason, that isn’t what he was complaining about. This is a prototype race, first race is always is, we will see if we did things right or wrong."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.