BERNIE ECCLESTONE EXCLUSIVE: Lewis asked me to get him a move to Red Bull... but they turned down the dream team out of loyalty to Webber

Bernie Ecclestone may be 82, but his influence shows no sign of diminishing. While he happily admits leaving ‘all those internet things’ to his third wife, Brazilian Fabiana Flosi, who is 46 years his junior, Ecclestone remains the last global czar of sport.



Ecclestone will be at the epicentre of Formula One today, even though he will be watching the Malaysian Grand Prix from an armchair in the penthouse situated above his suite of offices in Knightsbridge, with their views overlooking Hyde Park.



Telephone calls from various sources will keep him abreast of all developments. Little happens in F1 without Ecclestone’s knowledge, or, in most instances, without his approval.

Double act: Sebastian Vettel and Bernie Ecclestone have forged a strong friendship over the backgammon board

Now Ecclestone has revealed that when Lewis Hamilton wanted to find a new team for this year, the 28-year-old British driver asked him to broker a move for him to join Red Bull alongside Sebastian Vettel, who has monopolised the world championship for the past three seasons.



Advanced discussions took place at the British Grand Prix last summer — and collapsed, according to Ecclestone, only because of the decency of Red Bull’s billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who, ultimately, declined the chance to create the most mercurial partnership on the grid out of loyalty to his long-time second driver, Mark Webber.



‘Sebastian wouldn’t have cared if Lewis had signed for the team,’ said Ecclestone, who has befriended Vettel since his earliest days in F1 and regularly plays backgammon against him in the inner sanctum of his mobile HQ at circuits around the world.



Webber, by his own admission, was reviewing his own options last summer after being asked to meet representatives from Ferrari at a period when he questioned the wisdom of remaining another year at a team where Vettel is the undoubted star. Even so, Mateschitz still wanted the Australian to have first refusal of a Red Bull drive.



‘Dietrich is a very honest, straightforward guy and told Mark the door was open for him to stay,’ said Ecclestone. ‘That was good of him.’

In situ: Mark Webber (front) remained at Red Bull alongside Vettel, despite the wishes of Lewis Hamilton

History shows us that Webber won the British Grand Prix, for a second time, and then signed a new one-year deal to remain with Red Bull.



‘Had Mark gone, Dietrich would have signed Lewis,’ said Ecclestone.



Loyal: Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz

Hamilton, as we have since discovered, remained restless to leave McLaren, where he had been groomed for stardom from childhood.



Ecclestone had another card to play. Inside his office, he moved closer across his boardroom table to recall advising Hamilton: ‘Why not talk to Mercedes, Lewis?’ Ecclestone also remembered Hamilton’s response. ‘Lewis rolled his eyes … but I told him that he had nothing to lose as he wanted out of McLaren.’



By the end of September, Niki Lauda, who drove for Ecclestone when he owned the long-defunct Brabham team in the Seventies, clinched the deal for Mercedes, who are paying Hamilton £60million over the next three years, as well as granting him the freedom denied by McLaren to expand his own commercial portfolio. To Ecclestone, it was a service rendered; and another favour to be drawn on, if and when needed.



Russian president Vladimir Putin is the latest world leader Ecclestone has persuaded to buy into Formula One next year, when the inaugural Russian Grand Prix will be staged in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, eight months on from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. ‘I have been trying to get into Russia for around 30 years, since we tried to take a race through Red Square,’ smiled Ecclestone. ‘But they wouldn’t agree to Tarmac it!’

Sideways glances: Hamilton (right) was keen to take Webber's seat after ending his relationship with McLaren

Ecclestone’s recent visit to Sochi was to have a private audience with Putin and the governor of the region. ‘In the early days, President Putin’s English wasn’t that good,’ said Ecclestone. ‘Now, it’s all right if he wants to make his point. He is an incredible guy, a proper leader, a man I have enormous respect for.’



Ecclestone chuckled at a memory from one of his visits to Sochi. ‘I asked them where they were going to hold the Olympic downhill race,’ he said. ‘They pointed to a mountain. I asked how people would get to it. They said by car, so I asked them, “Where will the people going to the race park their cars?” Not long after that they said they were going to build a train line to the venues.’



Seen it all before: Ecclestone, pictured in 1977, is a doyen of the machinations of the Formula One circuit

His long-practised philosophy in broadening Formula One’s market far from its old European stronghold has attracted loud criticism, some of it hard to satisfactorily silence.



Next month, Ecclestone will be at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which could once again be a focus for anti-government protesters who, complaining about the country’s poor human-rights record, were victims of a brutal armed response last year, allegedly ordered by the ruling Royal Family.



‘I understand what the protesters are talking about, but it is difficult to talk about the politics of another country,’ said Ecclestone, who met opposition leaders last year. ‘You never know what can happen, but if I was running their campaign I wouldn’t think protesting the grand prix again would help. They need to do something new to get attention.’

Whoever said politics and sport don’t mix is out of date with the modern world. To further muddy the waters in the Gulf, the McLaren team are 50 per cent owned by Bahrain’s rulers. Without doubt, the Bahrain Grand Prix is one everyone in the paddock, including Ecclestone, just wants to get behind them.



For Ecclestone, there is a further potential hazard ahead. In October, he is due to testify at the High Court, where jailed German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky’s allegations that he was paid a £27m bribe to direct the sale of F1 to its present owners, CVC Capital Partners, will be heard. Ecclestone denies any wrongdoing.

If he is troubled by the court appearance, he does not show it. ‘The shareholders don’t feel I’m past it,’ he said. Indeed, CVC’s faith in Ecclestone’s style of leadership can be conveyed by their willingness to float the company on the stock market, perhaps as early as this year, with him in charge.



Ecclestone’s mind, however, was otherwise engaged last week. He has just returned from Brazil, where the mayor of Rio de Janeiro is pitching hard for it to become the host city of the Brazilian Grand Prix, rather than Sao Paulo, in time for a joint celebration with the Olympic Games in 2016.



‘The mayor has told me they can get it done,’ said Ecclestone. ‘I have been unhappy with Sao Paulo for a long time. It’s a super race track, but the facilities need a big facelift. We could be there for Olympic year, but I know how hard it was for London to run just the Olympics.’

Youthful exterior: Despite his 82 years, Ecclestone appears to be in the prime of his life

Did Ecclestone go the Games in London? ‘I went for the closing ceremony, but I left before it started,’ he explained. ‘I met the people I wanted, then I thought I’d be better off seeing it on TV.’ Pure Ecclestone.



Talk of his legacy is perhaps premature, but he is still energised to breach new frontiers, with Bangkok in his sights; and he is justifiably proud of the production values he has instilled in the TV coverage of the sport. And, yes, he agrees Formula One will never be run in such a manner after he departs.

