Bernie Ecclestone’s long time close confidante and occasional business partner, Flavio Briatore organised a surprise dinner for the former Formula 1 supremo and was amazed by the turn-out of the sport’s heavy hitters.
Briatore said in an Instagram video, “I organised a surprise dinner in London for the 40 years in Formula One of Bernie Ecclestone. The amazing thing is that all the people I invited were present.
“Normally, if you invite one hundred people, you have 60 people who confirm they can attend because you are talking about people that are very busy – or who live many thousands of kilometres away.”
“But everybody came to London, including Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Salman of Bahrain, Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, Piero Ferrari, David Coulthard, Max Mosley, Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda, and many other people.”
“It was a kind of tribute to Bernie’s career. He was not treated well by the new Formula One bosses. People forget easily what this man has created. It was a bit of a sad evening, but very beautiful,” added Briatore.
Ecclestone was ousted from his role at the helm of Formula 1 when the sport’s new owners , Liberty Media, took over the management aspects of the business installing Chase Carey chief executive officer and executive chairman of the Formula One Group, with Ross Brawn the sporting managing director and Sean Bratches the commercial managing director.
Ecclestone was appointed to a non-executive role as Chairman Emeritus.