[Formula One racing looking after Jackie Stewart in 1968] was not so intense and, yes, it was much more dangerous - what was definitely different back then was the level of safety.

I recently interviewed Bernie Ecclestone in London. He had a go at women, said [Vladimir] Putin should be running Europe and so on. He enjoys it - he's been doing it for such a long time. He has an entrenched position. The truth be known, he is unique, right?

When you go back to the above names it was a very much narrower situation - the alternatives were far fewer. Today there is much more competition for the 'hero stakes'! And if you think about all the alternatives you have today to spend your time on, the pool of heroes is much broader. It was very much less back then.

The web attacks traditional ways of doing things and elites, and this is very uncomfortable for traditional businesses to deal with.

F1 is a fight for people's time. There are millions of options today for how to spend it. That is probably the biggest difference from 1968 to now.

There is much romanticism about Formula One of the past. Today it has to be more of a family sport, not less. It is a fixture in the Sunday afternoon TV programmes, and probably flamboyance - those white silk suits and devil-may-care attitudes - would be outworn attributes today.

The challenges some European economies have are such that it makes it very difficult for them. You have to go where the growth is.