Senna crash was good for F1 - Ecclestone

Formula One supremo and commercial rights owner Bernie Ecclestone has launched another controversy by stating during that Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that the fatal crash of Ayrton Senna in 1994 has proved "good" for Formula One.

"He was unfortunate. But the generated publicity was so much... It was good for Formula 1", said Ecclestone in an interview that publishes the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo today.

In a further attempt to explain his beliefs, the Briton added: "It is a pity that we had to lose to Ayrton, but it happened. The actual event interested so much people who did not know about this sport and gained interest in Formula One because of it".

Ecclestone further added that recent changes in Formula One have successfully dealt with the financial downturn of this and last year: "People talk about the crisis, but there is money out there. I just talked to a guy who wants to buy one of those teams," said Ecclestone, adding that he would be "very happy" if there were 13 teams in next season.

At the same time, he flatly ruled out any possibility of allowing a team to run three cars in the Formula One championship. It is known that this is a wish of Ferrari for 2010 to enable them to run Michael Schumacher alongside Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso: "It's stupid. It will not happen. Forget about it".