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Formula One's Ecclestone is the richest person in England, worth more than the Queen.
By KEVIN KELLY
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 23, 2000
INDIANAPOLIS -- At 5 feet 2, the most powerful man in Formula One racing is about as tall as a jockey.
His stringy gray hair is combed in no particular fashion. His lightly tinted glasses can't dim the glare of the spotlight that's always on him. He always wears a white button-down shirt, and he only wears a shirt once before throwing it away.
Judge not by appearances or idiosyncrasies.
Bernie Ecclestone, a trawler captain's son and racing lifer, runs Formula One with an iron fist and a walkie-talkie in hand.
"It's one of those things like when somebody starts painting," he said Friday. "They become an artist and continue painting."
Ecclestone added another brush stroke to his unfinished work this year by bringing Formula One back to the United States for the first time in nine seasons.
For an estimated $45-million, Indianapolis Motor Speedway revamped its aging facilities and built a new 2.606-mile, 13-turn road course especially for the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday. Qualifying begins at 2 p.m. today.
"It's always been extremely important to have a round of the championship in the United States," said Max Mosley, president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, Formula One's sanctioning body. "The difficulty has been finding a venue suitable to hold it at."
While Formula One's history in the United States dates to 1959 at Sebring, it has always been unstable.
Ecclestone, FIA's vice president, anticipates staying put in Indianapolis.
"I'm sure we're gong to be here for a long time," he said. "I don't see any reason why we would want to leave here."
Ecclestone has gained the reputation of a workaholic, been called a dictator, made it through political scandal and antitrust claims. Holding a job similar to NASCAR founder Bill France, Ecclestone apparently drives a hard bargain.
"I should have done this earlier," Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said of luring Formula One to his track. "It would have been a lot cheaper."
In the two decades since he began operating the commercial sides of Formula One as a power broker for FIA, Ecclestone transformed the sport into the world's most popular form of racing.
It's also one of the richest.
More than 300-million viewers worldwide watch races during the season.
According to EuroBusiness magazine, Formula One Administration distributes $180-million from television rights contracts to the 11 race teams.
There still is plenty left over.
Ecclestone is the richest resident of England with a annual salary of $80-million and a fortune of $3.8-billion. He ranks one spot ahead of Queen Elizabeth II.
"Nobody begrudges him one penny because he works so hard on everybody's behalf," Mosley said this year in a London newspaper. "Okay, he makes a lot of money, but then so does everybody else in the sport thanks to him."
Racing has always been in his blood, which is surely part of the reason that on race weekends his personal buses are parked in the paddock. Born in Suffolk, England, Ecclestone started his career in racing in 1947 by riding a motorcycle and later made it as far as Formula 3.
Before racing, he earned a degree in chemical engineering from Woolwich Polytechnic in London. Ecclestone also owned a used car and motorcycle business.
He became a Formula One team owner in 1971 when he bought the Brabham team from Ron Tauranac. Nelson Piquet, from Brazil, drove the team to two championships (1981, '83).
One year before his first championship, Ecclestone took over as president of the Formula One Constructors Association and marketing director of the FIA.
Twenty years later, Ecclestone's world is still non-stop.
On rare breaks, Ecclestone may visit one of his four homes in Corsica, Gstaad, Switzerland or the French Riviera, arriving via one of his two private jets.
And at 69, he doesn't have plans of relinquishing control.
"I'd like to go on 20 more years," he says without a hint of sarcasm.
The addition of Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the schedule is the latest evolution of the sport Ecclestone lives and breathes. Still, he finds it hard to pinpoint specific changes he's seen or initiated in the last two decades.
"If you grow up with it, things change all the time," Ecclestone said. "When you're involved in it, you don't see things. It's only if you had suddenly come in.
"If somebody had been a racer 10 years and came back today, they'd see the difference. I don't."
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.