I was reminded this morning of just how closely F1 and fascism align. Near the end of the Russian Grand Prix TV broadcast there was a quick shot of good ole Vladimir Putin on the podium sitting next to Bernie Ecclestone, the guy who used to own the rights to F1.

Ecclestone transformed the sport of Formula One motor racing from a poorly-coordinated, poorly promoted, poorly regulated, elitist pastime into one of the most popular – and most watched – sports in the world. It is certainly one of the most lucrative sports; at least for the teams. Every point scored counts for millions of dollars in shared profits thanks to the payment scheme devised by Ecclestone. But not so much for the promoters…

Bernie ran the Formula One Group with an iron fist, and he created an enormous trust fund for himself and his offspring… although he also made some curious business decisions.

The former communist regime of Russia would appear to be an odd place to host a sport dedicated to all the worst excesses of Western Capitalism, but the oligarchs now control the Russian economy under Putin. Bernie Ecclestone made a lot of his fortune from Russian oligarchs.

Likewise Baku, Azerbaijan doesn’t come to mind as the ideal location for the most glamorous sport in the world…until you remember how much oil money flows from the region. The Russian mob controls most of that action; and these are Bernie’s friends. They have tons of illicit money to launder and they need fronts for this purpose. Ecclestone and tRump have a lot in common in this regard.

I suspect F1 is an excellent money laundering mechanism as well, considering all the costs related to hosting a race, including the enormous application fees. We’ve had the Baku GP for three years now.

The nation-state of Singapore is also on the calendar: another perfect haven for money laundering.

China is on the F1 calendar. It has been a regular stop since Bernie cut the deal to race there over a decade ago, but it was a total shock when it was first announced. China is yet another repressive regime which the sport hasn’t shied away from visiting.

The South African GP continued throughout the years of Apartheid with no problems at all, and ironically it hasn’t returned since the white minority was overturned and democracy was restored. It’s the same with fascist Spain under Dictator Francisco Franco in the 60s and 70s, or Brazil, another violent, repressive, fascist regime, throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. They are still on the calendar, at least.

The same can’t be said for Argentina, which happily hosted F1 races while under Augusto Pinochet’s rule.

These countries were also havens for Nazis fleeing international justice following World War Two. Might there be a connection there? Interestingly enough, Bernie Ecclestone’s longtime partner in Formula One Group was Max Mosley, son of infamous British Nazi Sir Oswald Mosley. Mosley was considered so dangerous he was imprisoned for the duration of the war for his subversive activities.

But Bernie and Max also blackmailed countries like South Korea, India and Turkey into hosting GPs when their economies were booming. Those nations invested billions of dollars creating the infrastructure and facilities, and they weathered the enormous costs involved in building a state-of-the-art F1 track worthy of FIA certification to host a Grand Prix, only to be abandoned years later.

The countries listed above, including emerging third world countries such as Malaysia, built excellent racing facilities with really exciting, challenging tracks – all subsidized with taxpayer money.

These countries got short-term contracts, at the expense of traditionally motorsports-friendly places on the European continent such as Germany, Holland, and France.

Now France and Germany are back, but so are places with unsavory human rights records, like Singapore, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi; not to mention China and Russia. And now unfortunately one must also include the USA on that list…

Formula One teams have come and gone as well. Over the years, many teams have been disbanded and many owners imprisoned for fraud, ponzi schemes, embezzlement and other financial crimes. The sport has been a vehicle for laundering money in the past and it appears that this is still the case. Former Force India team owner Vijay Mallya is the most recent example of a team owner forced to sell his team under a cloud of suspicion. In Mallya’s case, he is (unsurprisingly) under investigation for tax evasion and fraud.

Several other high profile cases have emerged from the lower classes of racing in the US and UK. Drug smuggling is also a popular occupation for team owners. Indy car and IMSA racer Randy Lanier was recently released after serving time for coke smuggling. Sportscar champions John Paul Jr and Le Mans winners Don and Bill Willington all went to prison on Federal drug charges. British Touring Car driver Vic Lee was sentenced to 12 years after he was caught using his team’s transporter to smuggle almost $10 million in cocaine…and the list goes on.

Since its inception in 1950, F1 has traditionally been aligned with excessive wealth and capitalist ideals which encourage greed, excess, and gambling with other people’s money. The Monaco GP in Monte Carlo is the jewel in the crown of the sport. There is no way that 200 mph F1 cars should be racing around the tiny streets of that Uber-High-End tax haven for the wealthy. The only reason it remains on the calendar is because the illuminati want to keep it there.

So I’m not surprised to see Bernie Ecclestone still hanging out with dictators and gangsters like Putin. The world is run by those kinds of people any more. Ecclestone was removed from his position as chief executive of his company Formula One Group following its takeover by US mass media conglomerate Liberty Media in 2016. Whether this means more business opportunities for drug smugglers, money launderers and dictators remains to be seen.

So yeah, F1 stands for pretty much everything I am philosophically against. Greed, waste, Capitalism, elitism…and oddly enough, fascism, too…

So why do I still love it?