Jeremy Clarkson: Ecclestone departure 'a good thing' for F1

The former Top Gear host, who now presents the Amazon Prime show The Grand Tour, made his comments in a video posted to his new motoring website DRIVETRIBE this week.

Ecclestone made an appearance on Top Gear in 2011 when he arranged for Clarkson and co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond to run laps around the Monaco Grand Prix street circuits in 'hot hatchbacks'. Ecclestone himself was Clarkson's passenger in a Citroen DS3 Racing.

"I had some time for Bernie in the end actually," said Clarkson. "But it's probably a good thing that he's gone and that's it's now going to be run as a show and not as just some tool for making already very rich men a little bit richer."

Clarkson added that that the sport needed to learn some new tricks from NASCAR racing in the US now that it has been taken over by its new American owners, headed by chief executive Chase Carey.

"Because Chase is American, there’s no question that the Americans have a sense of theatre about them," he explained. "Think whatever you do of NASCAR, they can fill 250,000-seater stadiums, which no other sport on Earth can do.

"Formula One, the rich old men who run it, just need to be told that it’s for the fans, he added.

"The only thing that will get the fans watching and therefore the sponsorship money rolling in again is excitement, and I think the Americans understand that so I'm hoping and praying that they bring it back."