Formula 1 have issued a statement following comments by their former chief executive, Bernie Ecclestone, in an interview with Good Morning Britain on Thursday morning, in which he praised “sensible” Vladimir Putin who he would “still take a bullet for”.

The 91-year-old businessman said that “unfortunately he’s like a lot of business people, certainly like me, that we make mistakes from time to time and when you make the mistake, you have to do the best you can to get out of it.”

These comments come amidst the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine following President Putin’s authorisation of a “special military operation” in the east, after intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter him.

Ecclestone simultaneously criticised the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not making a “big enough effort to speak to Putin”, whom he described as a “sensible person” who “would have listened to him and could have probably done something about it.”

He went on to confirm that he believed that if Zelenskyy had done more to avert war, as opposed to any change in Putin’s actions, the conflict that has taken the lives of thousands of innocent Ukrainian people could have been averted. “I’m quite sure Ukraine, if they’d wanted to get out of it properly, could have done.”

A Formula One spokesman has said: “The comments made by Bernie Ecclestone are his personal views and are in very stark contrast to the position of the modern values of our sport.”

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A total of 700 British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport have voted in favour of and are set to go on a strike during the summer holidays in a dispute over pay, where demand is at its highest.

Unite and GMB union members have backed industrial action due to a 10% pay cut which was imposed at the peak of the pandemic, and is not to be reinstated. 94.7% of Unite members and 95% of GMB members voted in favour of the walkouts.

It is understood that these proposed strikes will only be undertaken by fewer than 50% of British Airways staff at Heathrow Airport. Nevertheless, if these strikes go ahead, there will no doubt be disruption for passengers and possible cancellations of flights.

Some members of BA staff, such as ground operations and engineers, have had their pay cuts reversed, however the GMB claim that check-in staff “have had nothing”. Unite have called this an insult. BA have issued a statement claiming that they are “extremely disappointed” with the decision made and are committed to finding a solution with the unions.

The exact strike dates are to be confirmed in the next few days.

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