Bernie Ecclestone - Access Interviews

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

It is a rare experience to see some sixty-odd years melt away to nothing. But that is exactly what happens when Formula One group CEO Bernie Ecclestone and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel come together - be it for a game of backgammon or a chat about business. Former driver Gerhard Berger once said that Vettel may be 23 but he looks 19 and thinks like a 33 year-old, whilst 80 year-old Ecclestone swears he is not a day older at heart than the Red Bull driver. Regardless of their respective ages, it's clear this duo have established a firm friendshipÂ…

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

The season may be just three races old, but it's already been one of the busiest ever in terms of press coverage. Not only is the thrilling on-track action providing huge headlines, there have also been several off-track stories to keep the media on their toes. Speaking exclusively to Formula1.com, Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone tackles recent reports of a bid to buy F1's commercial rights, discusses the future engine downsizing, and gives an insight into the prospects of the Bahrain and Turkey racesÂ…

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

The 2010 Formula One season was a smash hit with audiences worldwide. 2011 started with the cancellation of the season opener in Bahrain, but Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone is confident that if circumstances allow, the teams together with the FIA will do their best to make a return possible, even if it does mean a shorter summer break. Whatever happens, it looks like we're set for another terrific season and, as always, Ecclestone has a few ideas up his sleeves for even more excitement in the years to comeÂ…

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

â€¢ American whizz kid is doing big motor racing deals worldwideâ€¢ 'You've got to have a bit of a racer instinct in you to survive'In a motorhome parked on the infield of the giant Daytona speedway in Florida sits a part-time racing driver who could well become the most influential man in his sport. Zak Brown is still in his race suit, which does not really fit with the lavish interior of this penthouse on wheels, but his main focus is outside the cockpit.This weekend Brown is a competitor in the Rolex 24 Hours, the traditional curtain-raiser of the international motor racing season. For just about every other day of the year he is doing deals that shape motor racing worldwide. So successful is he, and so well connected, he might be the man to step into Bernie Ecclestone's shoes when the master of Formula One eventually departs.Brown, who is still 10 months away from his 40th birthday, was born in Los Angeles and harboured dreams, rare for an American, of being a Formula One driver. He travelled to England and trained at Donington Park under the tutelage of Richard Dean, who became a firm friend and is now a business partner. A penniless Brown spent many nights sleeping on Dean's sister's floor in Sheffield as he tried to work his way up the racing ladder. Like so many who shoot for grand prix stardom he came up short. His struggles to launch and fund his driving career alerted him, however, to the fact that he is one hell of a businessman."I didn't go to college," Brown says. "I'm not sure I could even spell it. The business came out of a necessity to make a living because I wasn't making a good living as a driver. The business came about as a need to eat."I was told to stop driving â€“ and it hurts your ego at that point â€“ and focus on sponsorship. It was in 1998 when I realised it was not that I wasn't good at finding sponsors, but I wasn't good at finding sponsors for Zak Brown, because Zak Brown wasn't going to take LG or UPS where they need to go. They needed a superstar driver. Once I came to grips with that and started working on sponsorships for other people a light went off and said 'Stop, look at how much business is taking off now.' So I stopped in 2000. Business took off so I was pretty quick to figure out this is where I need to channel 110% of my effort."That channelling of effort â€“ and it is seemingly limitless â€” into his company Just Marketing International has made Brown not just a very rich man, but a key figure in Formula One. Last week Brown flew to London for 24 hours and, although he is coy about his business, is believed to have had dinner with Ecclestone, who talks very highly of him.Members of his 140-strong staff talk of how they never have to wait longer than 20 minutes for a reply to an email, wherever Brown is in the world."I don't sleep well," says Brown, "maybe three, four hours a night. I have to clear all my emails before I go to bed and I get 250 a day. But if I roll over and see the red light flashing on my phone I have to see what it is and answer it. It drives my wife crazy when I'm home, which is not a lot."Is it a bit of an OCD thing? "It's a big OCD thing," he laughs. "I've got problems."The deals done after those fitful nights have taken LG, UPS and countless other global corporations where they want to go in motor sport. The electronics giant LG is now an official partner of Formula One and their logos adorn Sebastian Vettel's and Mark Webber's Red Bulls. JMI's client list is blue chip and extensive. If you want to get your company into Formula One, Brown is the man who can make it happen, with a solution tailored for every need.There are parallels with another racing driver who came up just short behind the wheel but still had a massive influence on motor sport. Back in 1958 Ecclestone failed to qualify for the only grand prix he entered and from then on he concentrated on driver management before running a team and then effectively running the sport. Does Brown see the similarity?"The people who were really successful in motor sports were from the inside," Brown says. "You've got to have a bit of racer instinct in you to survive. Very few people have come from the corporate world, once they have matured in business, and been successful. It's usually someone with a passion for the sport, who started at the grassroots level either as a driver or a mechanic and came up through the ranks. I definitely feel that I'm a racer from that standpoint."Ecclestone is an admirer of Brown and last year attended the launch of his United Autosports team, an outfit that races a pair of Audi R8s in the British and European GT championships â€“ not the levels of motor sport that the man who runs Formula One's commercial rights normally troubles himself with."We've done a lot of business with Bernie," says Brown cheerily. "You'll see us in Singapore, China, Daytona. Sponsorship is the world we live in and we do more of it than anyone else. Yeah, it's a great honour to have someone like Bernie come to our team launch, support our team. I think it says something about the relationship that we have."Ecclestone was happy to offer a rare endorsement: "I know first-hand the determination and drive Zak Brown delivers to the commercial side of Formula One. Since he brings that same focus and intensity to bear in any enterprise, I'm confident his leadership and marketing skills will be of great advantage to his United Autosports team."That team goes from strength to strength, racing around the world to increase the brand, often with marquee names behind the wheel. Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell are on the driving strength of Brown's Riley-Ford that, he hopes, will finish well up the leader board when the Daytona race finishes this evening.What next for Zak Brown? "Brands want big sponsorships and that is what pays big bills when you have 130-140 employees," he says. "You can't feed them off doing $100,000 transactions. We are just going to keep doing what we're doing and just do more of it. Our success is dependent on the sport's success."The "sport" to many is simply Formula One and with Ecclestone â€“ the commercial rights holder and most powerful man in F1 â€“ now into his ninth decade, there are those in the grand prix paddock wondering what the future holds."I think it will be impossible to replace Bernie," says Brown. "You'd certainly have to approach it with a bit of a team. You'd need a chief executive, but Bernie's got such a unique skill set that I look around the world and I don't know if you could pop in and be Bernie overnight. I think that is a concern for the sport because he is 80 so he's not going to go on forever. He's still got a bit of a run in him. I don't think he's going to retire, he's going to go until the lights go off, so he could have another 10 years in him."The upward curve enjoyed by Brown's business means that he has afforded himself the luxury of racing again on an occasional basis, albeit all around the world and for a team he owns himself. Driving, he says, is the only thing that stops him thinking about his business. But does he see himself, somewhere further up that curve, becoming the most influential man in motor racing?"That's flattering," he laughs. "Certainly this is my life. I feel that I'm well-rounded, having driven, owned a team, done sponsorship, done business with all these people that have run the sport."I would certainly like to be in Formula One, in some capacity, forever. There's a lot I don't know. I've not done television contracts but those things can be learned, or there are other people that have the expertise. I ask for a lot of advice. I have an advisory board of seven individuals with the former president of AT&T and the former CMO of DuPont, so I think one of my strengths has been recognising what I don't know and trying to surround myself with people that do know."Every president has his cabinet so I know my limitations and I trip over them every once in a while. I'm not going to charge forward on something I don't have experience in without trying to gather a bunch of experience or getting people around me. I want to be in the sport forever, so if I were ever to get the call to participate in the future of Formula One in some way shape or form, I'd jump all over that."Formula OneMotor sportOliver Owenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

The autocratic head of Formula One has no plans to retire as he seeks to expand the world championshipBernie Ecclestone glides silently, like a small and unblinking shark, into an empty office. His expression remains curiously blank as he says, softly: "I've not got long." It's tempting to imagine that one of the most dictatorial men in world sport is finally confronting his own mortality as Ecclestone will turn 80 next week. But it soon becomes obvious that the billionaire controller of Formula One is concerned less with his age than a relentless schedule before the controversial first grand prix in South Korea this Sunday.We still end up spending almost an hour together and it seems appropriate to wish him happy birthday. "Hopefully I'll make it," he says dryly. "But it's all nonsense. What's the difference being 79 one day and 80 the next? It's the same. I don't even know where I'm going to be. I'll be travelling somewhere."Rather than celebrating, or snoozing in his favourite chair, Ecclestone will be working on his birthday because he cannot imagine himself retiring before he dies: "Absolutely. What else would I do? People retire to die."Ecclestone smiles when asked if he still expects to rule Formula One in another 10 years, aged 90? "Yes!" he exclaims. "The way I feel at the moment, why stop? I do it because I enjoy it. And yesterday is gone. I don't care what happened yesterday."The prospect of a 90-year-old Ecclestone dictating to the sport with his usual domineering relish conjures up some surreal images. But, in his final race before he becomes an octogenarian, a compelling battle for the world championship reaches its third last stage with the Korean grand prix. A few weeks ago Ecclestone warned that the race was under real threat because the new track at Yeongam had not been completed. "It's done now," he says. "It's all right. Last month I didn't think it would be finished. And it would have been cancelled then â€“ for sure. But the track has been inspected and passed. Everything's OK."Yet the shambles exposes Ecclestone's mercenary ambition. He has always believed he has the right to reshape Formula One by moving into countries with no previous tradition of racing â€“ as long as they pay him enough money. Next year an Indian grand prix will be added to the F1 circus. A new race in Texas has been confirmed for 2012 and, last week, Ecclestone announced that Russia will join the roster in 2014. This year's championship is likely to be settled in the very last race in Abu Dhabi and so, superficially, it appears as if F1 has become a much more universal sport which reaches millions of new fans rather than just the European elite who flock to Monaco and Monza."We're a world championship and so, by definition, we need to be in different parts of the world. In the end common sense has prevailed and we've expanded. It's just having the courage to do it."As the president and chief executive of Formula One Management, and as the sport's commercial rights holder, Ecclestone runs racing as his personal fiefdom. For 32 years he has controlled Formula One, amid increasing accusations that he has stripped racing of its soul. It's always best to pause whenever romantic cliches like "heart" and "soul" are evoked in professional sport. But a key point remains. Rather than broadening its appeal, Ecclestone has instructed Hermann Tilke, his pet designer, to churn out a series of new circuits which are tedious replicas of each other. "Our problem is that we're trying to build race circuits that are super safe. You don't get so much up-and-down because you can't just put a new circuit anywhere. But one of the best circuits in the world is Turkey. It's a great circuit â€“ that's upâ€‘andâ€‘down."The Turkish grand prix has been supported sparsely since its introduction in 2005. In contrast great races like the Belgian grand prix, at the majestic circuit of Spa, and its British equivalent at Silverstone, have been threatened with expulsion. Does Ecclestone have any qualms when remembering his decision to remove the British grand prix from the 2005 calendar? "Not at all," he says of a strategy that was soon reversed, with the result that the British GP has been secured at Silverstone for another 17 years. "What I was told they couldn't do at Silverstone has since been done. It will now be a good race that we can be proud of. But nothing is cast in stone."Could the best track of all, Spa, still be jettisoned? "Absolutely. If it wasn't supported by the government over there it probably would go because they wouldn't be able to afford it. It's the same with the British grand prix. The worst thing is that the government here have wasted a fortune on the Olympics which will come and go, and be forgotten in a few weeks, when they could have supported Silverstone and made sure the British grand prix is there forever. The only good thing about the Olympics is the opening and closing ceremony. They do a lovely showbiz job. Otherwise, it's complete nonsense."Ecclestone has been involved in Formula One for 53 years. As a former team owner who won the world title three times with Brabham, surely he retains some passion for racing over money â€“ especially in relation to Spa? "It's only good for the people who race. That circuit sorts out the men from the boys and if I was driving again I'd feel very happy I'd won in Spa. It's one of those classic courses. We've kept it. But we used to have 16 races. There's 19 this year and next year, with India, it will be 20. There's no magic number â€“ it's what is commercially viable."The addition of Texas and Russia will raise the amount of potential races to an unsustainable 22. "I think we'll find a way to keep it to 20 somehow," he says. So at least one European race might go? "Yes, Spa," Ecclestone deadpans.It takes a few seconds for the joke to register. Ecclestone then suggests a more likely candidate for the chop. "Maybe someone will decide they need a rest because it's not working for them commercially. A good example is probably Turkey. They've built an incredible circuit and it might even be the best â€“ but there's not much enthusiasm from the public. I don't know why."Ecclestone has never worried much about public opinion. Did he lose any sleep last year after describing Hitler as a politician who was "able to get things done"? "Not at all. I knew what I meant."His apparent endorsement of Hitler was, he explains, an expression of his belief in dictatorships. "Absolutely. I get myself into so much trouble when I say these things but I don't think democracy is the way to run anything. Whether it's a company or anything you need someone who is going to turn the lights on and off. We had Mrs Thatcher and when she was in charge she did turn the lights on and off. She brought the country to where it was before it got muddled up again."Ecclestone suggests that Max Mosley, despite his sado-masochistic lifestyle and his father's past as the founder of British fascism and a supporter of Hitler, "would have been a very good prime minister. Max would've been ideal. He would know how to handle things. Max had an awful lot going for him. Maybe people thought he was too clever."Saddam Hussein was another dictator, like Hitler, who could "turn the lights off" with devastating brutality. But Ecclestone argues that he made Iraq a more stable country. "Absolutely. It's been proved, hasn't it?"As a man who also believes that "torture is an old-fashioned way of getting things done", has Ecclestone wished that his own sporting dictatorship extended to him being able to put a few of his enemies on the rack? "I've not had too many problems I've not been able to deal with," he replies with a ghostly smile.He has made a reluctant advance on football. In the colourful company of Flavio Briatore, now banned from Formula One, and Lakshmi Mittal, one of the world's richest men who is apparently worth Â£19bn, Ecclestone now owns QPR. "It's something I got involved in," he sighs, "not out of choice. I'm probably going to be even more involved shortly. It's a task that needs getting on with."Does he have any enthusiasm for QPR? "Not at all. Of course I can pull out â€“ but there are lots of things that could and should be done there. It's mainly commercial things and for me to see if we can get that working better. Once you get me involved that's it. I'm there."And QPR are top of the Championship. "Yeah, it's good. Super, super, super. We can only go down from here."They might go up first, to the Premier League, before going down again. Ecclestone almost smiles again. "Half the people who get involved in football do it only to satisfy their ego. I suppose we all get caught up in that."There was a period a few years ago when it seemed as if Ecclestone might attempt to seize control of Arsenal. "I thought it would be nice if we could be in charge of Arsenal. It was a stupid thing to do. I'm very lucky I escaped because that would've been a 24-hours-a-day job. I only got involved a little bit because my daughter's boyfriend was David Dein's son. That's how it started."His mask as an Andy Warhol impersonator slips most when he reflects on his children and his painful divorce last year. He and his ex-wife, Slavica, the former Armani model who at 6ftÂ 2in is a foot taller than him, have two adult daughters, Tamara and Petra. "I feel terribly sorry for them," he says of his billionaire children. "Both my ex and myself really had to come up the hard way. The kids haven't had to do that. In a lot of ways it would be better if they'd had to fend for themselves. I talkÂ to them but you know kids â€“ they don't listen."Ecclestone admits his divorce was tumultuous. "We'd been together 26 years. It's a long time to be with someone and to have those particular feelings. But she thought she wanted to be her own boss and it's not up to me to stop her."The little dictator sounds wounded. "I'm living with someone else now but you always think, 'What would have happened if â€¦?' or 'Was it necessary?'"Fleetingly, Ecclestone looks old and lonely. It does not seem as if his life is ever lifted by the occasional surge of elation. "No, it's not. I don't get any individual pleasure because we don't win races or titles in this job. I'm like most business people. You look back at the end of the year and you see what you've achieved by working out how much money the company has made. That's it."Bernie EcclestoneFormula OneMotor sportDonald McRaeguardian.co.uk Â© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

'I'm still here!' That's the headline Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone suggests for his forthcoming landmark birthday. And indeed he is - so much so that he's uncharacteristically late for the interview, busy as ever, solving problems in three simultaneous meetings. Ahead of his ninth decade, the indomitable Briton looks back at his successes - and looks ahead to his successorÂ…

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

One is the architect of modern Formula One racing, the other a paddock stalwart of over 15 years, who recently led Mercedes' return to works-team status for the first time since 1955. So who better to discuss manufacturer teams, Michael Schumacher's comeback and the sport's highs and lows than Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug?

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Reams have been written about both Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone and 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, usually separately. Interviewed together for the first time at the recent Bahrain Grand Prix, the duo set out to make joint headlines, as they discussed the return of Michael Schumacher, the three new teams joining the grid this year, and each otherÂ…

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

You need nerves of steel to take on Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. Here he talks about Max Mosley, those controversial comments about Hitler and still being in love with his former wife

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Looking dapper in a bright-red Ferrari-issue skiing jacket, Bernie Ecclestone turned up in the Dolomites yesterday and predicted that 2010 is going to be the most exciting Formula One season in years. The 79-year-old commercial rights-holder also made a bizarre suggestion about how to improve the spectacle of the sport, with a proposal to include a short cut at circuits that drivers would be able to use a limited number of times during a race as a sort of trump card. Asked about ways to increase the amount of overtaking, Ecclestone revealed that he has proposed to the teams that circuits should be modified to enable drivers to take a short cut now and again to enable them to get ahead of cars holding them up. â€œIt would be very easy for us, on each circuit, to have an area where you could gain a lot of time, so you could overtake,â€ he said. â€œYou can imagine a short cut if you like, which a driver can use five times during a race, so it will stop people getting stuck behind somebody. â€œIt would be great for TV and good for commentators, who would talk about one driver with three [short cuts] left and another with two.â€ It is the second year in succession that Ecclestone has visited Ferrariâ€™s traditional pre-season ski meeting here, where the Scuderia introduce their drivers for the season â€” in this case, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who have been enjoying a chance to get on the piste. Ecclestone, who is being accompanied by his 30-year-old girlfriend, Fabiana Flosi, during a two-day stay, is being treated like visiting royalty. And he has not ruled out a little skiing. â€œIf you do, I will,â€ he quipped when asked about his plans by The Times.

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

BERNIE ECCLESTONE has risked infuriating already angry F1 fans by sucking up to old pal Flavio Briatore. Billionaire Ecclestone was on the World Motor Sport Council that banned former Renault team chief Briatore for fixing last year's Singapore Grand Prix. But incredibly the F1 supremo now claims he reckons the shamed Italian - and fellow co-owner of football club QPR - was treated too harshly. Briatore, 59, was banned indefinitely from FIA-sanctioned events for his role in the scandal when driver Nelson Piquet Jnr was told to crash into a wall to bring out the safety car. But - in the build up to this year's Singapore showdown - Ecclestone said: "I would have banned Flavio for one year. That would have been enough. "But I was on the Council - so I am probably just as guilty as anyone else. "On reflection it was not necessary. It was too much - definitely too much. "If I were him, I'd appeal the ban. I'd go to the FIA court of appeal, and get it overturned. "The sport needs colourful characters. Flav was one of those. Now we've lost Ron Dennis and Flav. It's a great shame."

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Formula One commercial rights-holder seeks to scotch speculation by handing Edward Gorman direct line to his bosses from paddock. Bernie Ecclestone knows how to play the cloak-and- dagger game of Formula One politics better than anyone else. This weekend, and for the first time in his long career masterminding the sport, reports emerged suggesting that the company that employs him to run Formula One is considering getting rid of him. Unnamed sources said that the board of CVC Capital Partners, the private-equity company that owns 68 per cent of Formula One, met in London on Tuesday to discuss a plan of action to remove Ecclestone in the wake of his ill-judged praise of Adolf Hitler in an interview with this newspaper ten days ago. The meeting was described in considerable detail. It was attended by, among others, Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the marketing agency, and a board member of CVC, and Peter Brabeck, a senior figure at NestlÃ©, both of whom are Jewish and were said to be outraged at Ecclestoneâ€™s view that Hitler was a man who could â€œget things doneâ€. The suggestion was that CVC had decided enough was enough and that the 78-year-old billionaire, who has run the sport for the past 30 years, should be â€œmoved upstairsâ€.

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

First, an apology. As readers of The Times will know, I remarked in an interview with this newspaper that Hitler was able to get things done. I have no complaints about the quote â€” it is what I said â€” but it was not what I meant to say. Not surprisingly it has upset a number of people in the Jewish community, in Germany and elsewhere. Those who donâ€™t know me think I support Hitlerâ€™s atrocities; those who do know me have told me how unwise I was to articulate my points so badly that it should have been so widely misunderstood.

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief, said yesterday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to â€œget things doneâ€. In an outspoken interview with The Times, the 78-year-old billionaire chastised contemporary politicians for their weakness and extolled the virtues of strong leadership. Mr Ecclestone said: â€œIn a lot of ways, 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. â€œIn the end he got lost, so he wasnâ€™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 wasnâ€™t a dictator.â€ He also rounded on democracy, claiming that â€œit hasnâ€™t done a lot of good for many countries â€” including this one [Britain]â€.

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

At 78, and newly divorced, formula one supremo Bernie Ecclestone defends his associates, Mosley and Goodwin, and explains why the recession doesn't trouble him - but life without Slavica doesMax Mosley would have made a better prime minister than Tony Blair, according to Bernie Ecclestone. "And I'm a big Blair supporter," the impresario of formula one adds, a surprising admission in the light of the 1997 cash-for-ash scandal, when the Labour party was forced to return Ecclestone's Â£1m donation following allegations of influence being brought to bear in an attempt to exempt grand prix racing from the European Union's ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship.Six or seven years ago, Ecclestone said, he attempted to persuade Mosley, his associate of 40 years and the son of Britain's most notorious fascist leader, to revive his political ambitions. "He would have liked a political position. He's a good leader and he'd have been a bloody good prime minister. He thinks on his feet. He could hold his own against anybody who wanted to do battle against him. And he would be committed enough to do what he felt had to be done."Where would Sir Oswald Mosley's son, who campaigned for his father's postwar, pro-European Union movement and later attempted to become a Conservative parliamentary candidate, have fitted into the political spectrum? "Probably like his dad." But wouldn't his family history have been an insuperable handicap? "He always had that baggage around him, about what people might have thought. But most of those people didn't really know what his father stood for. His father stood for what he thought was right at the time, whether it was right or wrong. Now we know. But at the time that was what his father thought, and he was committed to it. "Would people be against Max for that? Some people would, for sure. I did ask people at the time, in the Jewish community, 'Do you think if Max stood there would be an opposition?' And each one of them, without exception, said, 'I don't think so.' But he couldn't get a seat from which he could operate."This week, as the 78-year-old Ecclestone discovered his wife of 24 years had been granted a quickie divorce, he watched with admiration as Mosley, 10 years his junior and bruised but unbowed by last year's revelations about his sex life, put the case for a privacy law to a House of Commons select committee."Max is ballsy," Ecclestone said, perched on a chair in the Knightsbridge headquarters of his empire. "He's taken it in his stride. I'm very proud of him, the way he's going forward with that, to protect people's privacy. A lot of people could have done it before and didn't." Twelve months ago, when the News of the World published details of Mosley's activities in a Chelsea basement, Ecclestone was among the first to call for his removal from the presidency of the FIA, world motor sport's governing body. Many observers were shocked at the apparent evidence of a rift in such a close and long-standing partnership. Others, of a more cynical nature, were unsurprised when, as the heat died down, Ecclestone publicly recanted."I was pushed by an awful lot of people who said you should make an effort to get him to stand down," Ecclestone said. "I didn't want him to. What happened didn't bother me in the slightest, and he's proved that he was right in not standing down. He's absolutely 100% right with his privacy thing."The two men joined forces in the early 1970s, while both were owners of grand prix teams. When Ecclestone took over the Formula One Constructors' Association, Mosley became the organisation's lawyer. Together, the son of a Suffolk trawlerman and the Oxford-educated barrister established a template for the commercial exploitation of modern sport. Several years ago, in a deal of unprecedented scope, Mosley and the FIA granted Ecclestone's company a 100-year lease on formula one's commercial rights, for the sum of $313m (Â£224m). He paid in one lump, at eight hours' notice, without the benefit of a bank loan. "Since the day I started in business," he said, "I've never borrowed one single pound." Over the years he is believed to have earned around $3bn from the sale of his share in the commercial rights, which he still runs through an agreement with the present owners, a private equity company. On their behalf he negotiates revenues from broadcasting, race sponsorship and trackside advertising, and from the fees charged to race promoters. His personal fortune, which is estimated at Â£2.4bn, appears to have remained virtually unchanged over the past five years.Not surprisingly, he defends the super-rich in their hour of trial. "These people started with the same amount of money as the people who disapprove of them, and they happen to have made more," he said. But the world in which he lives is the one that has suddenly attracted widespread disapproval: that of investment banks, leveraging, securitisation and offshore trusts. He sold formula one to bankers, and his personal wealth has long been lodged in such tax havens as Jersey and Liechtenstein. He is scornful, however, of this week's announcement in Forbes magazine that the number of billionaires in the world has dropped by a third in the past year."Those people were never billionaires in the first place," he said. "They could take their bits of paper and ask their accountant, 'If we sold the company and if somebody wanted to buy it, what would we be able to sell it for?' But they could never have gone to the bank and written a cheque for what they were alleged to be worth."Could you?"I could. I could go to the bank and draw the money out."He defends Sir Fred Goodwin, the former boss of Royal Bank of Scotland, who put millions of pounds of the bank's money into formula one. Could Goodwin, who was seen at the circuits in the company of his consultant, Sir Jackie Stewart, be described as an F1 fan?"No. He was a fan of the bank. He was trying to do a good job for them. I've no idea whether he was or not. Presumably he was, otherwise he wouldn't have been paid the salary that he was."So what would Ecclestone do about Goodwin and his Â£700,000-a-year pension? "Nothing. Presumably he was employed by someone, and if people there didn't realise what he was doing, that's their problem. He's got a pension which was agreed at the time, and everybody must have been happy with it, and I don't think anybody should touch it. He got fired or left because of what happened, but one has to wonder, really and truly, was he the only person who made the decisions? And maybe if he'd been allowed to make the decisions, he wouldn't have made the decisions that caused the bank to be in trouble."Ecclestone said if his advice had been followed, the crisis would never have become a full-blown recession. "I said in September, when it was obvious what was going to happen, that I would have got the major countries together and got them to agree to print 15% more money and start massive inflation, which would get the world going, and then over the next five years get the inflation down to reality. They're doing it, but too late. But I said a long time ago that the stockmarket would crash and that Europe would become a third-world economy. And it will."By that time, his empire will have moved elsewhere. Grand prix races now take place in China, Malaysia and Bahrain, with Korea, India and Russia primed to take over as traditional circuits in France, Germany, Italy and England fall victim to the recession and to Ecclestone's financial demands. But with the 2009 world championship beginning in Australia in a fortnight, he insisted that formula one is not under siege, despite the withdrawal during the winter of several prominent sponsors, including RBS."I don't get the impression that this crisis has caused any problems, which is a big surprise," he said. "You would have thought that the teams would take less people and start to cut down on costs. But they're taking more people to the races than they took last year. I know exactly because we do all the credentials. It doesn't look to me as though they're cutting down too much." So will he be cheering for Lewis Hamilton, whose last-ditch victory in Brazil in October was the answer to an impresario's prayers? "Honest to God," he said, "I don't care who wins the championship. But it's only ever happened once that a guy wins the championship on the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. Lewis obliged. I was very happy."Meanwhile Ecclestone is dealing with the sudden changes to his life wrought by his divorce from Slavica Radic, a Croatian former model 28 years his junior and, famously, almost a foot taller, with whom he has said he expected to spend the rest of his life. The offshore trusts in which his fortune is invested were in her name, but the financial details of the separation appear to have been concluded amicably. The couple have two daughters: Tamara, 24, a TV presenter, and Petra, 20, a fashion designer. "I still come in at the same time in the morning and leave at the same time at night," he said, "and when there's racing at the weekends I'm away and when there isn't I'm at home. From that point of view it hasn't changed. It's just that if I go home at night there's nobody in the house. Tamara and Petra have been very good to me. They keep their eye on me to make sure that there's nothing I need and that I'm eating properly. They ring me every day, sometimes two or three times a day. They look after me."Ecclestone is known for an obsession with tidiness. In the days when he subsidised a digital TV operation at each race, he insisted that the dozen or so trucks transporting the equipment were parked not only with their number plates in order but with the manufacturers' names on their tyres aligned."If I came to your house," he said, "I'd upset you because if I saw the pictures were crooked, I'd go round straightening them up. Apart from being mad, it's a bit rude. And in a lot of ways it's probably frustrating for people that you're with."Slavica isn't a tidy person, but it didn't bother me. I was happy living with her, and if she was leaving things about a bit it didn't bother me. It bothered her that I was tidy. So I fell into her ways. That's how it was. In the meantime, in other areas I've still got a tidy mind. I still straighten the pictures up."So for now, like a racing car endlessly circling the track, Ecclestone continues to exert a virtually single-handed control over one of the biggest shows in the world of sport, dismissing notions of retirement. "I'll continue to do what I do as long as the shareholders are happy and as long as I can deliver," he said. "When I feel, 'Bernie, you ain't getting the job done any longer,' then I'll do something else. Until then, I'm here."Ecclestone's difficult yearFebruaryFans with blackened faces direct insults at Lewis Hamilton during a test session in Spain. "I don't think it was anything to do with racism," Ecclestone said.MarchThe News of the World publishes details of Max Mosley's sado-masochistic sessions with prostitutes in a London basement. Ecclestone is among those who call on him to resign as president of the FIA, but later apologised.JulyA new organisation, the Formula One Teams Association, announces its intention to fight Ecclestone for a bigger slice of the sport's profits.NovemberA spokesman for Slavica Ecclestone confirms that she and Bernie are to divorce. A decree absolute is granted on 11 March.DecemberHonda withdraw from formula one, citing a worldwide slump in car sales. Other sponsors, including RBS and ING, also announce their departure.Formula oneMax Mosleyguardian.co.uk Â© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

BILLIONAIRE F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has told the News of the World he hopes to WIN back his wife on Valentineâ€™s Day â€”even though sheâ€™s filed for DIVORCE. The 78-year-old tycoon admits he now has a dilemma over what gift to woo Slavica withâ€” because she already has everything! In an amazingly candid interview, down-in-the-dumps Bernie spoke for the first time about the split with his wife of 24 years. He said: â€œSlavica is the love of my life. But the lawyers say I mustnâ€™t call her and mustnâ€™t try to get in touch with her.â€

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder, launched a stinging attack on Luca di Montezemolo yesterday, effectively telling the Ferrari president to mind his own business, in the wake of the latterâ€™s criticisms of the way Ecclestone is running the sport. Speaking at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, this week, Di Montezemolo said that Formula One was not being run in what he called a â€œnormalâ€ manner, that the sport did not need a â€œdictatorâ€, in a remark taken as a reference to Ecclestone, and that teams wanted more of the sportâ€™s vast income and greater transparency from Ecclestone about the extent of that money. â€œWe want to know more about the revenues,â€ he said. An angry Ecclestone told The Times that Di Montezemolo should be the last person to be complaining about how much income the teams receive. â€œThe only thing he has not mentioned is the extra money Ferrari get above all the other teams and all the extra things Ferrari have had for years â€“ the â€˜general helpâ€™ they are considered to have had in Formula One,â€ Ecclestone said. ...

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Ecclestone reviews dramatic F1 season. Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone looks back at a dramatic and controversial season and offers his views on the incident in Spain where Lewis Hamilton was the target of racist abuse at a test session. This is the full interview in which Ecclestone sparked the racism row that has engulfed him and Hamilton....

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Bernie Ecclestone tells Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek he believes London has a very hard act to follow in staging the Olympic Games after the success of Beijing.

Bernie Ecclestone

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:20:03 +0100

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone has played down the racism row surrounding Lewis Hamilton, insisting it has been blown out of proportion. The newly-crowned world champion was abused during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, in February. Some spectators were pictured mocking Hamilton by wearing wigs, dark make-up and t-shirts with the slogan 'Hamilton's Family'. And in the run up to last weekend's pivotal Brazilian Grand Prix, hundreds of abusive messages were posted on a website in Spain, many of them racist. However, Ecclestone has moved to defuse the row. "I think it's all nonsense," he said. "In Spain people were supporting (Fernando) Alonso and in Sao Paolo they were supporting Felipe (Massa). "I don't think it was anything to do with racism. "There were a few people in Spain and that was probably beginning as a joke rather than anything abusive. "I think people look and read into things that are not there. All those things are all a bit of a joke and people are entitled to support who they want to support. "I don't see why people should have been (insulted by it). These things are people expressing themselves."