Bernie Ecclestone has admitted he considered a £600 million bid to buy the Wimbledon tennis championships and even had ambitions to run the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Ecclestone has had a position of control in F1 since the 1970s but has had other ventures outside of the sport, such as owning professional football club Queens Park Rangers with Flavio Briatore between 2007 and 2011. The billionaire could have been involved with professional tennis, too, after revealing an ambitious plan with friend Ion Tiriac, a former coach of former Wimbledon champions Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic.

Speaking at the Lawn Tennis Writer's International Awards, Russian billionaire Tiriac said: "I was sitting here with Bernie Ecclestone, we were watching Goran Ivanisevic playing on No. 1 Court and there were three rain breaks.

"He said, 'How much do you think Wimbledon makes?' I said, 'Maybe 50, 60 [million]' He said, 'We should buy it out, £600m, you and me. We can get a roof on the court in two months'."

Ecclestone confirmed the story to the Telegraph and says the pair had their sights set on more than just owning the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, which is currently in its second week.

"At the time, we were looking to try and take over the ATP and run the tennis," Ecclestone said. "Ion is a very good friend of mine. He used to run a lot more tennis tournaments than anybody. That's how it all happened.

"We were very serious. I don't think in the end we made any sort of offer. We were looking to see if it was possible and how we would do it. Until we got everything lined up properly, we couldn't make a bid. We needed to make sure all the other people were on board."