Bernie Ecclestone..Where did he come from?

[JeremySmith]

Please excuse my ignorance.

Could my learned friends here please explain to me where Bernie Ecclestone came from..What is his experience in Formula1, and how did he get started in the sport, and also I would like to learn more about his digital televison station...Who get's it and how.. Thank you in advance!

[White Van Man]

He used to own and run the now defunct Brabham team with some success

[robert2000]

Don't forget his two attempts to qualify a Connaught in 1958

[freud]

Its an interesting topic. I love to know about his background and his psychological make-up that tempts him to favour a "little bavarian boy"Oedipus complex or what?

______________________
"God save King Bernie"

[Red]

Where did he came from... He was not rich. His father was a trawler captain. He left school at age 15, eventually got a chemical engineering degree, he run a motorcycle and car dealership and then was involved in driver's and team management.

• Raced motorcycles as a teenager.
• Raced in 500cc Formula 3 until 1951 (when he had a crash at Brands Hatch). He was 21.
• Manager of Stuart Lewis-Evans (Connaught, Vanwall)
• 1957 ran in Tasman series and in '58 he tried (not very seriously though) a couple of GP's as a privateer: British (did not start) and Monaco (did not qualify), but I'm not 100% sure (he bought a couple of Connaughts)
• Manager of Jochen Rindt in the sixties.
• Manager of Brabham in 1970 (he bought the team in '71). Piquet was Drivers Champion in 81 and 83.
• Withdrew Brabham from the competition in '87, sold the Brabham name in '89.
• In eighties, he and other guys (one of them was a certain Mr. Max, one of the owners of MARCH team) formed FOCA. The war between FOCA and FISA was eventually solved by Enzo Ferrari (just as a curiosity, at Maranello in 1981 Bernie and Max were sitting at the right hand of Commendatore...
  ...

So, I guess that if Ferrari is Formula 1, Bernie comes a close second.

[JeremySmith]

Thank you Red.. That is most imformative..He is realy is a pioneer then, quite an accomplishment I realy had no idea about Bernie's background at all....Mr Eccelstone is now 69 years of age if am correct.Who will take over the running of Formula1, when for practical reasons he can no longer continue..Will it become even more corporate than it is now,I hope not for F1 sake..Should the team owners create a consortium??

[SL]

So, he did not crawl out from under a stone then.

[Liisu]

Where did Bernie come from?

He used to be a car salesman. There was a big article about him in The Economist some weeks (months?) ago, so you can read all the nice - and other - details there.

But he sure made it big. He has a ferocious marketing instinct and must have a "money-finding device" installed in his nose (or possibly elsewhere). Germans say that money doesn't stink, but even so, I'm quite sure that Bernie can smell it!!