Ecclestone asks Hungarian President “Was your crown made in China?”
The Hungarian Grand Prix organisers marked the 25th anniversary of their first F1 race this weekend.
They put on a lavish ceremony attended by F1′s top drivers, Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone and the new Hungarian President Pál Schmitt.
The video below from Hungarian news site index.hu shows some highlights from the event including an amusing exchange between Schmitt and Ecclestone – the F1 boss asking whether a 1,000-year-old crown he was shown had been “made in China”.
Fortunately the Hungarian president seemed to take the joke in the manner it was intended.
Earlier Schmitt thanked Ecclestone for arranging the first Hungarian Grand Prix in 1986, when Hungary was still part of the Eastern Bloc:
I would like to express my distinguished gratitude to Mr Bernie Ecclestone who decided around 30 years ago he would have a race in one of the former socialist countries.
Pál Schmitt
Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovalainen, Lucas di Grassi, Timo Glock, Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto were among the drivers present.
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Technical review: German and Hungarian Grands Prix
- From the stands: Nikolai Vogler watches two races in one week
- Ecclestone asks Hungarian President “Was your crown made in China?”
- Michael defends Barrichello strategy
- How F1 can make pit stops safer
- 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- A move too far: Schumacher forces stewards to take a stand
- Who was the best driver of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend?
- Red Bull mark 100th F1 start with win (Hungarian Grand Prix facts and stats)
- Red Bull fly to victory but FIA set to clip their wings (Red Bull race review)
wasiF1 said on 8th August 2010, 3:44
That’s the Bernie we all know.
chris sz said on 9th August 2010, 0:33
i can’t believe the guts of that guy! such unrefined jokes can’t be appreciated by hungarians.quite offending to say sthing like that about one’s history. BE was at the hungarian parliament with the President who was explaining him a piece of history, not just any but about the Holy Crown and the first king. was BE aware of what was going on, couldn’t he figure out that what he was saying might be offending?
Aha said on 9th August 2010, 9:37
As someone already said above, if he said that to the Queen of England, she would’ve walked out of the room immediately
Judit said on 9th August 2010, 10:38
Darling Bernie was uncouth to be quite mild – yes, he is a cheeky dwarf but the problem is that a lot of people take his ‘jokes’ lying down and do not dare to rebuke him because they are afraid he will move away his circus. A lot of Hungarians would not miss him and his miserable, pathetic money-addicted staff. The whole world would be better off without the damage these races do the the environment, by the way.
GooddayBruce said on 9th August 2010, 13:21
Love that bit where Massa has a camera in his face and a load of mikes – then most of them disappear when Alonso turns up!
dj said on 9th August 2010, 18:14
Yum , that pit babe at 1:35,know wonder they love this race
Martin_B said on 14th August 2010, 15:17
Bernie: “Was your crown made in China?”
Prez: “No. Unlike your wig.”