Tamara Ecclestone: Button doesn’t deserve to be champion

Dogs don’t make cats, and Tamara Ecclestone has nothing to envy about her father’s way with words, perfectly demonstrating this in an interview given to the Sunday edition of the Mail where she somewhat tarnishes Jenson Button’s image: « Jenson Button was a nice guy, but success has gone to his head. I was doing an interview with him in 2009 and he interrupted it to take a call on his mobile phone. To me, that’s the height of bad manners. He seems to have changed enormously since he found success. I don’t even think he deserves to be world champion. He would never have won in 2009 if everyone had had the same car. […] Lewis Hamilton is by far a better driver and a better person » she assures.

The 2009 world champion does not enjoy great esteem from Bernie Ecclestone’s eldest daughter, who overwhelmingly prefers Ayrton Senna: “He was my hero and he always will be. As a family friend, he represents a big part of my youth. We visited him in Brazil, and he took us jet-skiing. Later, he visited us in Switzerland, and we introduced him to snow skiing; he had never seen a snowflake before. He was a genuinely kind person. No matter how famous and adored he was, he never lost his natural humility. There will never be another driver like him; unlike many drivers today, he wasn’t a machine.”

Born on June 28, 1984, Tamara Ecclestone, who studied – although she didn’t complete her course – at the London School of Economics before becoming a reporter for Sky Italia, has been mentioned among her father’s potential successors: « Recently, my father stated that he might consider a woman at the head of Formula One within the next three years. I wouldn’t advise anyone to bet on the idea that I could be that woman: the role is too big for me. I would hate to ruin the work he has accomplished: I would reduce everything to nothing in just a few hours » she jokes.

The young woman, however, refuses to be confined to the role of a socialite: « I feel the blood rushing to my head when I see myself being described as a socialite. To me, a socialite is someone who doesn’t need to work, but I have never stopped working since I left school. I’ve also had my share of lousy jobs. I worked as a publishing assistant for a Formula One magazine where people took great pleasure in giving me the most menial tasks. So, I know what it means to work. I am not a socialite, I am a businesswoman. »

Tamara Ecclestone claims that her last name is more of a burden than a blessing: « I am proud to be an Ecclestone but it hasn’t always made my life easier. People might think that my name opens doors for me or assume that everything I have is thanks to a phone call from Bernie. […] I’ve always felt I had to be three times better than anyone else. »

Although the daughter of a millionaire, the eldest of the Ecclestone family claims to have had a simpler life than one might think: « We never had nannies or drivers. My mother always drove us to school, it’s not like I could ask my parents for a helicopter for my 7th birthday and actually got one. My parents really worked hard to ensure my sister and I stayed grounded, and we are grateful to them. It must be tough for my mother and father to read that they raised spoiled brats. »