Ecclestone’s power play is no surprise

LONDON — It was almost as if he had worked it out so that everyone in Formula 1 would be away on their annual August break, so as to guarantee minimal fuss. Knowing Bernie Ecclestone, nothing would surprise.

Certainly the news that a German court was dropping its high-profile bribery suit against the octogenarian F1 impresario after he agreed to make a hefty £60 million (S$126.36 million) payment will surprise no one within the sport. A raising of the eyes and a shaking of the head are all it will elicit in the paddock in Spa when F1 reconvenes later this month. “Bernie does it again”.

That is not to say that the irony of Ecclestone paying an eye-watering sum of money to make bribery charges go away is lost on anyone. It is just that, where Bernie is concerned, he has been getting his way forever. If there was a deal to be made in Germany, Bernie was going to make it. The only surprise is that it has taken him this long.

It has been over three years since Gerhard Gribkowsky, the German banker to whom Ecclestone was accused of paying US$44 million (S$55 million) in bribes, was arrested. Three years in which Ecclestone’s grip on a sport he has run for over three decades has come under serious scrutiny.

No one in the sport seriously expected Ecclestone to go to jail. How many 83-year-old billionaires go to jail? What was less clear was whether he would keep his job.

Last autumn’s High Court case, brought by German media firm Constantin Medien, which claimed US$140 million in damages as a result of Ecclestone’s actions, was particularly costly. Although the judge dismissed the claim, he found Ecclestone culpable of having paid these monies and accused him of being a wholly unreliable witness. The court also heard some pretty unsavoury evidence.

Ecclestone shrugged it off, just as he shrugged off Tuesday’s outcome — £60  million? “I’m a bit of an idiot for paying it,” he quipped. “They (the prosecution) didn’t really have a case.” Obviously enough of one for him to have paid what is believed to be the largest amount in German judiciary history.

He will consider it money well spent. With an estimated £4 billion in the bank, he will not miss the cash. And the genius of the settlement is that there is no suggestion of guilt on his part. More than that, the presiding judge Peter Noll actually said that the charges could not be substantiated in important areas. Game, set and match.

Ecclestone breezed out of Germany, and was straight back into a sport that is, to all intents and purposes, his life. He will not go on forever, of course. At 83, his days are numbered, but you have to give him credit, Bernie is one of the great survivors. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH