F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is back in the headlines after reports he 'praised' Adolf Hitler for his ability to 'get things done'.

According to reports by British broadsheet newspaper, The Times, the 78-year-old said current politicians are too weak and he backed 'strong leaders', including Hitler, as well as the likes of Margaret Thatcher.

He also added that democracy is not necessarily a good thing, and that totalitarianism has a lot of pluses, pointing to the situation in Iraq as one example.

"In a lot of ways, [and it is] terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done," Ecclestone told the 'paper.

"In the end he got lost, so he wasn't a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it... so either way he wasn't a dictator.

"[But] I do prefer strong leaders. Margaret Thatcher made decisions on the run and got the job done. She was the one who built this country [Britain] up slowly.

"We've let it go down again. All these guys, Gordon [Brown] and Tony [Blair], are trying to please everybody all the time.

"Politicians are too worried about elections. We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein. He was the only one who could control that country.

"It was the same [with the Taleban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture. The Americans probably thought Bosnia was a town in Miami. There are people starving in Africa and we sit back and do nothing but we get involved in things we should leave alone."

Ecclestone also noted that his friend and FIA president Max Mosley, would make a good Prime Minister for the United Kingdom.

"Max would do a super job. He's a good leader with people. I don't think his background [as the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists] would be a problem."