Yesterday we carried on this site a JC interview with Bernie Ecclestone in which he apologised for his remarks about Hitler.

It's not surprising that he wanted to kill off the story asap - his remarks on Saturday had gone round the world with the speed at which the internet disseminates news and were (in fact, they still are) threatening to undermine, if not destroy, his position. 

I now know who was advising Mr Ecclestone on his crisis management strategy. Step forward Lord Mandelson, who had at least one lengthy conversation with Bernie Ecclestone yesterday and who told him what best to do to kill off the story. 

This I know for a fact. There has also been information, although I can't verify this, that one of Lord Mandelson's minions wrote Mr Ecclestone's Times piece today.

New Labour and F1 - still hand in hand.

UPDATE: Daniel Finkelstein writes

Bernie Ecclestone's piece was not written by one of Lord Mandelson's minions.

That's good enough for me; he should know.

But we do know nonetheless that Mr Ecclestone spoke to Lord Mandelson yesterday about his crisis.