Bernie Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone attempted to qualify for a single World Championship event. He was in a Connaught-Alta, one of a fleet of three entered by himself. He finished qualifying 265.2 seconds off the pace, and his two team-mates failed to qualify as well.

He is, however, the most important single person in Grand Prix history. He took charge of Motor Racing Developments in 1972, from Ron Tauranac. He was the team principal for Nelson Piquet's two drivers' titles, but he'd lost interest by the time Brabham missed the deadline to enter the 1988 World Championship.

Into the governance of the sport he went, and he modernised it, and quickly controlled Formula One. He is now the leader of a billion-dollar industry. He is a divisive figure, but he's not done badly for someone who was four minutes off the pace on a Saturday in Monaco.
 
Bernie has a fetish for cheeky Christmas cards. In keeping with his management style ("the beatings will continue until morale improves"), and never one to let a scandal go to waste, this is the card he sent the season after Mad Max's kinky sex romp was revealed:

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Mosely is depicted running down the pit wall, swatting the team principals on the bum with a riding crop. Bernie offers a booklet of incriminating snaps.


This is the one he sent the for the 2009 season:

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The other team principals bid bon voyage as Mad Max sets sail with Mario Theissen and John Howett, ex-principals of former BMW and Toyota teams. From his dinghy flying the Jolly Roger, Flavio Briatore prepares to fire a rocket launcher at the departing sailboat. The Chrome Gnome watches from a distant lifeguard station.


The season after Hamilton signed with Mercedes:

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A smiling Lewis abandons his broken-down Macca and is lured into the waiting Merc (driven by the Super-Rat) by the bulging bag of money waiting in the passenger's seat. Ecclestone the Snowman looks on.


This most recent Christmas, Bernie's card celebrated the new Concorde Agreement:

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Bernie and Jean Todt are the happy couple, LDM is the supervising man of the cloth. The congregation, comprised from the usual F1 suspects, are throwing copies of the agreement in place of rice.
 
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I was about to say that BE is keeping very quiet at the moment... However, I see that he's not.

Mind it is the Daily Mail. On the other hand, it is Bernie Ecclestone, it might be true!
 
Bernie to me looks like he has lost the plot, when the camera is on him he looks around him as if he is bewildered like he isn't quite sure where he is. but then again this could be a clever ploy on his part so that he can present himself as a dithering old fart and beg the court not to be sent to prison as he is Non compos mentis...
 
It looked to me like he had had a minor stroke! Didn't seem to be able to level his mouth up.
 
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