There’s a reason Bernie Ecclestone keeps turning up in Formula 1 histories, net-worth lists, and British court reports: he built the commercial engine behind modern Grand Prix racing, then closed his public career with a tax-fraud conviction. This reference sorts the confirmed facts from the estimates — the F1 sale price, the reported £653 million HMRC settlement, and the family details people actually search for.
Born: 28 October 1930, Suffolk, England ·
Known for: Building Formula One’s commercial rights business ·
F1 sale value: About US$4.4 billion (2017 Liberty Media acquisition) ·
Marriages: Three ·
Children: Four (Deborah, Tamara, Petra and Ace) ·
2023 sentence: 17 months, suspended, for HMRC fraud
Quick snapshot
- Born 28 October 1930 in Bungay, Suffolk (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- Liberty Media completed the Formula 1 acquisition on 23 January 2017 (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- Pleaded guilty to fraud on 12 October 2023; 17-month sentence, suspended (Wikipedia (biographical reference)) (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- Exact 2026 net worth is a Forbes estimate, not an audited figure (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- Slavica Ecclestone’s current residence is not consistently reported (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- Exact number of great-grandchildren isn’t tracked in official sources (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- 1972: bought the Brabham team (Wikipedia (biographical reference)) (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
- 2006: CVC took control of Formula One (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
- 2017: Liberty Media completed the takeover (Liberty Media (acquiring company)) (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
- 2023: guilty plea at Southwark Crown Court (Wikipedia (biographical reference)) (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
- Holds chairman emeritus title; no operational role (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- Forbes will keep updating its US$2.6 billion estimate (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- Ace, born July 2020, turns six in July 2026 (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
Eight rows, one pattern: the personal facts are stable across every profile, while the financial lines carry an “estimated” or “reported” tag that matters more than the headline, per Wikipedia (biographical reference) and Forbes (wealth rankings).
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Bernard Charles Ecclestone |
| Born | 28 October 1930 in Bungay, Suffolk, England |
| Height | Reported at about 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) |
| Known for | Former CEO of Formula One Group; “F1 Supremo” |
| Spouses | Ivy Bamford (1952), Slavica Radić (1985–2009), Fabiana Flosi (2012–present) |
| Children | Deborah, Tamara, Petra and Ace |
| F1 sale | Minority stake sold in Liberty Media’s US$4.4 billion acquisition (2017) |
| 2023 conviction | Admitted failing to declare an overseas trust; 17-month suspended sentence |
How did Bernie Ecclestone get so rich?
What was Ecclestone’s early career in motorsport?
- Born 28 October 1930 in Bungay, Suffolk; raced 500cc Formula Three cars in the 1950s before moving into management (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
Ecclestone didn’t inherit the money and didn’t make it behind the wheel. The Formula Three career was real but modest; what set him apart was a talent for the commercial side of racing. When he bought the Brabham Formula One team in 1972 (Wikipedia (biographical reference)), he gained something more valuable than a car: a seat inside the paddock’s power struggles.
How did FOCA and TV rights turn F1 into a business?
- 1978: helped form the Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA), the teams’ bargaining bloc
- Began negotiating the sport’s television and race-promotion contracts as a single package
The central trick was collective bargaining. Before FOCA, race promoters dealt with teams one by one; after FOCA, the constructors spoke with one voice and Ecclestone negotiated the media deals. BBC Sport’s summary of his career put it plainly: he ran Formula 1 for nearly 40 years before Liberty Media removed him from operational control in January 2017 (BBC Sport (motorsport coverage)).
What did CVC and Liberty Media change?
- 2006: CVC Capital Partners bought control of Formula One
- 2017: Liberty Media agreed to buy 100% of Delta Topco, Formula One’s parent company, from a seller group led by CVC (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
Private equity changed the sport’s scale. CVC’s 2006 takeover turned Formula One into a financial asset with an exit strategy; Liberty Media’s 2017 acquisition completed that process. When the deal closed, Liberty valued the sport at an enterprise value of US$8.0 billion and an equity value of US$4.4 billion (Liberty Media (acquiring company)).
Ecclestone’s fortune is a broadcast-rights story, not a racing story: the television contracts he centralized through FOCA are the same assets CVC packaged and Liberty Media later bought for billions.
The pattern: every stage followed the same move — control the rights, scale the audience, sell when the sport is biggest. Owning Brabham gave him credibility inside the paddock; owning the rights made him a billionaire.
The implication: the money was always in the media contracts, not the machinery.
What is Bernie Ecclestone’s net worth in 2026?
How do financial publications calculate his net worth?
- Forbes lists Ecclestone and family at an estimated US$2.6 billion as of 14 September 2026 (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- The figure is a real-time estimate covering family entities and trusts, not an audited bank balance
Forbes is the tracker most profiles quote, and its “Bernard Ecclestone and family” line is worth reading in full. The estimate includes wealth held with family entities, which means the number can move with markets, currency, and deal news rather than anything Ecclestone controls in a given week.
Why did the HMRC settlement affect wealth estimates?
- Reported settlement: approximately £653 million, with some sources rounding to “more than £650 million”
That payment was a real cash outlay, and it landed in the same period Forbes kept him on the billionaire list. According to Wikipedia’s summary of UK legal reporting, the settlement and related payments followed his admission that he failed to declare an overseas trust (Wikipedia (biographical reference)). Wealth models had to absorb a nine-figure outflow while his remaining assets kept his headline estimate above US$2 billion.
Is Bernie Ecclestone still a billionaire?
- On Forbes’ September 2026 estimate, yes — US$2.6 billion puts him well above the threshold
But “still a billionaire” is a modeling output, not a verified fact. No official balance sheet exists for a private individual, and Ecclestone has never published one. Forbes groups “Bernard Ecclestone and family” into a single estimate; the underlying holdings are not itemized in public. The honest summary: Forbes says yes, and no audited number says otherwise.
Net-worth headlines treat a Forbes estimate as if it were a bank statement. The most concrete number in the recent record is the reported £653 million paid to HMRC — the figure wealth models must subtract whenever they update the billionaire headline.
The catch: “net worth in 2026” is a published estimate, not a certified account. Treat the US$2.6 billion as a snapshot, and treat the £653 million settlement as the only number tied to a court record.
The pattern: public estimates will keep shifting, but the only court-linked number is the one HMRC collected.
How much did Bernie Ecclestone sell for F1?
What did CVC Capital Partners buy in 2006?
- 2006: CVC took control of Formula One’s commercial business
- Ecclestone stayed in charge operationally, but the ownership changed
The 2006 deal was the first big outside-money moment in F1’s history as an asset class. CVC bought control while Ecclestone kept running the sport day to day — and, according to the deal documents Liberty Media later filed, it was CVC that led the seller group when the sport was sold again in 2017 (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents)).
What was the Liberty Media deal in 2017?
- Equity value: US$4.4 billion (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- Enterprise value: US$8.0 billion (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- Structure: US$1.1 billion cash, 138 million new Liberty shares, US$351 million exchangeable debt (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
Liberty agreed to buy 100% of Delta Topco — Formula One’s parent company — and completed the acquisition on 23 January 2017 (Liberty Media (acquiring company)). The structure combined US$1.1 billion in cash, 138 million newly issued Liberty Media shares, and a US$351 million exchangeable debt instrument, and it followed Liberty’s earlier US$746 million purchase of an 18.7% minority stake (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents)). The equity value is the number most headlines use; the enterprise value is higher because it includes debt.
Was Ecclestone the sole seller?
- No — CVC led the seller group; Ecclestone held a minority stake through a family trust
This is the detail that changes the headline. “Ecclestone sold F1” is shorthand; the sellers were a group led by CVC, and Ecclestone’s own holding was a minority interest. The US$4.4 billion price tag describes the whole sport’s equity, not a cheque written to one man. After the sale, Liberty appointed him chairman emeritus and installed Chase Carey as chief executive (Liberty Media (acquiring company)).
The “US$4.4 billion” figure is the equity value of an entire sport, not Ecclestone’s payout. Every profile that says he “sold F1 for $4.4 billion” collapses a multi-shareholder deal into one man’s cheque.
The trade-off: Liberty’s deal ended Ecclestone’s operational era while keeping him on the payroll as chairman emeritus — a soft landing for a man who had run the sport for nearly four decades.
The catch: the headline belongs to Formula 1’s value, while Ecclestone’s own cheque remains undisclosed.
What was Bernie Ecclestone convicted of?
What was the HMRC fraud allegation?
- Charged in July 2022 by the Crown Prosecution Service with fraud by false representation
- Case followed an HMRC investigation into undeclared overseas assets
- Assets at issue reported at about £400 million
According to Wikipedia’s summary of UK legal reporting, the charge came after HMRC investigated foreign assets that had not been declared to the tax authority (Wikipedia (biographical reference)). The reported value of those assets was approximately £400 million.
What sentence did Ecclestone receive?
- Pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on 12 October 2023
- Sentenced to 17 months in prison, suspended for two years
The guilty plea removed any trial, and the suspended sentence meant he did not serve time behind bars. BBC Sport had earlier reported a separate German bribery case against Ecclestone that ended with a US$100 million payment and no finding of guilt or innocence — a different legal chapter, but one that often gets mixed into the HMRC story (BBC Sport (motorsport coverage)).
How much did he pay to settle the tax claim?
- Reported HMRC settlement and related payments: about £653 million
- Some sources describe the total as “more than £650 million”
The settlement figure is the largest public number attached to the case, and it is a reported figure rather than an officially itemized accounting. What is clear from the court record is the conviction itself: a fraud-by-false-representation plea over assets he failed to declare.
This conviction was about non-disclosure of overseas assets to HMRC, not bribery connected to the Formula 1 sale. The two cases share a subject and almost nothing else.
The implication: the conviction added a rare hard number to Ecclestone’s public ledger — a reported £653 million transferred to the tax authority — while the hidden assets themselves stayed out of the itemized record.
The pattern: legal closure came through a plea, not a trial, which is why the public record rests on reported figures.
How many wives did Bernie Ecclestone have?
Who was Bernie Ecclestone’s first wife?
- First marriage: Ivy Bamford, 1952
- Second marriage: Slavica Radić, 1985–2009
- Third marriage: Fabiana Flosi, 2012–present
Ecclestone’s family record follows the shape of his career: a private first marriage before the fame, a long public marriage during his years running Formula 1, and a third marriage after the money was already made. Wikipedia’s biographical entry is the reference most profiles cite for the family list (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
How tall is Slavica Ecclestone?
- Slavica Radić: Croatian former model, height widely reported at over 6 ft
- Ecclestone: reported at about 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)
The height gap became one of the most repeated details in coverage of the couple — a 6 ft-plus model standing next to a 5 ft 2 in team owner made for an easy visual shorthand, and it never quite left the profile genre (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
Where is Slavica Ecclestone now?
- Divorced in 2009; has kept a lower public profile since
- Precise current residence not consistently reported
After the divorce, Slavica largely stepped out of the motorsport media cycle. Her exact whereabouts are not tracked in the biographical record, and most profiles stop at the divorce date.
The most photographed detail of the marriage — the height difference — outlasted the marriage itself in the public mind, even as Slavica’s post-divorce life stayed deliberately quiet.
The pattern: Ecclestone’s marriages line up with his public arc — the first before the empire, the second at the peak of it, the third after he had become a billionaire. The longest relationship coincided with the most successful business years.
How old was Bernie Ecclestone when he had his last child?
What is the age difference between Bernie Ecclestone and his wife?
- Fabiana Flosi and Ecclestone: gap commonly reported at about 46 years
Ecclestone married Flosi in 2012, and the age difference became a standard fact in coverage of the couple, repeated across biographical profiles (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
Does Bernie Ecclestone have a great grandchild?
- He was already a grandfather and a reported great-grandfather before Ace was born
- Exact current number of great-grandchildren isn’t tracked in official sources
The family milestones moved in an unusual order: Ecclestone reportedly became a great-grandfather while still a father of young children, and the exact count now is not something official biographies track.
Who is the father of Petra Ecclestone’s children?
- Petra’s children were born during her marriage to British businessman James Stunt
Petra Ecclestone’s family timeline is the one piece of the children’s story that gets a consistent answer in profiles: her children arrived during her marriage to Stunt.
Ace, Ecclestone’s youngest child, was born in July 2020, when Ecclestone was 89 (Wikipedia (biographical reference)). By the 2026 season, Ace had turned six — a generation gap so wide that the family tree now includes a young child, grandchildren from Petra’s marriage, and a father who turns 96 in October 2026.
The family’s public record is now split between a child born in 2020 and grandchildren born decades earlier, which means future milestones — not past wealth — will drive the next round of coverage.
The trade-off: having a child at 89 reversed the usual generational order — Ace was born after Ecclestone had already become a great-grandfather, putting the youngest and oldest generations of the family on the same timeline.
Timeline: from Bungay to the boardroom
The dates below follow the biographical record assembled by Wikipedia (biographical reference), with the deal milestones dated by Liberty Media (acquiring company) and Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents).
- — Born in Bungay, Suffolk, England (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Raced 500cc Formula Three cars; moved into driver management (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Bought the Brabham Formula One team (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Helped form FOCA; began negotiating F1’s television rights (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Married Slavica Radić (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — CVC Capital Partners took control of Formula One (Liberty Media SEC filing (deal documents))
- — Divorced Slavica Radić (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Married Fabiana Flosi (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — Liberty Media completed the acquisition; operational control ended (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- — Son Ace was born (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- — HMRC guilty plea; 17-month suspended sentence (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
The pattern: the business timeline and the family timeline share the same peaks — the FOCA years, the CVC sale, the Liberty exit — and the legal chapter lands at the end, after the fortune was already built.
Confirmed facts and open questions
Confirmed facts
- Born 28 October 1930 in Bungay, Suffolk (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- Liberty Media completed its Formula 1 acquisition on 23 January 2017 (Liberty Media (acquiring company))
- Pleaded guilty to fraud on 12 October 2023; sentenced to 17 months, suspended (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- Married three times; four children (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
What’s unclear
- Exact 2026 net worth: a Forbes estimate, not an audited figure (Forbes (wealth rankings))
- Slavica Ecclestone’s precise current residence: not consistently reported
- Exact number of great-grandchildren: not tracked in official sources
- HMRC total: “roughly £653 million” or “more than £650 million,” depending on the source (Wikipedia (biographical reference))
- Size of the family-trust stake sold in the Liberty deal: not publicly disclosed
What this means: the strongest record is biographical and transactional; the weakest is any personal wealth total.
The record in their own words
Ecclestone had run Formula 1 for nearly 40 years before Liberty Media removed him from operational control in January 2017.
BBC Sport (motorsport coverage)
The acquisition of Formula 1 was completed on 23 January 2017, with an enterprise value of US$8.0 billion and an equity value of US$4.4 billion.
Liberty Media (acquiring company)
Forbes lists Bernard Ecclestone and family with an estimated real-time net worth of US$2.6 billion as of September 2026.
Forbes (wealth rankings)
The common thread: three sources describing the same man at three different stages — the long-ruling executive, the seller who stepped aside, and the billionaire whose wealth keeps moving.
The takeaway
Read the whole record and a clear picture emerges: Ecclestone turned broadcast rights into a global business, sold it inside a US$4.4 billion equity deal, then paid a reported £653 million to close a tax-disclosure fraud that ended his operational career. For the UK tax authorities, the case closed with a guilty plea and a reported settlement above £650 million; for editors updating rich lists in 2026, the honest move is to label the figure an estimate, not a fact.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Bernie Ecclestone called the “F1 Supremo”?
Because he ran Formula 1’s commercial operation for nearly 40 years, centralizing the television and promotion rights through FOCA that made the sport a global business (BBC Sport (motorsport coverage)).
How many children does Bernie Ecclestone have?
Four: Deborah, Tamara, Petra and Ace, his youngest, born in 2020 (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
Who owns Formula One now?
Liberty Media. It completed the acquisition of Formula One’s parent company, Delta Topco, on 23 January 2017 (Liberty Media (acquiring company)).
Is Bernie Ecclestone still involved in Formula 1?
He holds the title of chairman emeritus, but he has no operational role since Liberty Media took over in 2017 (Liberty Media (acquiring company)).
What was Bernie Ecclestone’s full name?
Bernard Charles Ecclestone (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
Where was Bernie Ecclestone born?
In Bungay, Suffolk, England, on 28 October 1930 (Wikipedia (biographical reference)).
What this means: the search demand is split between the money story and the family story, with the tax case connecting both.
Related reading
- Jimmy Carr: Tax Debt, Net Worth & Appearance Change — another UK public figure whose HMRC dispute and reported settlement reshaped his public financial record.
- Craig Bellamy: Net Worth, Career & Latest News as Wales Manager — a sports profile that tracks a career and net worth the way the Ecclestone reference does.
Oliver Jack Carter Cooper is a staff writer for EveningLedger.uk, covering UK news, politics, business and culture. He works under Editor-in-Chief Edward Langley and Managing Editor Charlotte Reeves, following the newsroom standards for sourcing, verification and fact-checking set out in our editorial policies.