Bernie Ecclestone Questioned by Authorities Over Shotgun Incident

Bernie Ecclestone, the man who once ruled Formula One with an iron grip, spent part of his Monday being questioned by Portuguese authorities over an undocumented shotgun found in his possession.

The 95-year-old was detained at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais after his private jet touched down and customs officers carried out a routine inspection. During the check, officials discovered a shotgun that was not properly documented, prompting them to stop Ecclestone for questioning. Multiple authorities have confirmed the incident.

Under Portuguese procedure, the firearm was seized and Ecclestone was formally made a defendant in criminal proceedings, a standard step in cases involving undeclared weapons. What happens next in his case remains unclear.

Ecclestone rejected suggestions that he had been “arrested”, telling PA Media: “No. The police were very helpful and doing all they could to stop us from having to do what we had to do.”

He then laid out his version of events in typically brisk fashion. The former F1 supremo said he had travelled to Portugal to take part in a clay pigeon shooting competition, something he claimed had only been arranged days earlier after his wife, Fabiana, heard about the event on a flight from Brazil.

“I was going to take part in Portugal in a clay pigeon shooting competition,” he said, explaining that Fabiana had called him and urged him to join in. “As I have got guns already in Switzerland, which have been imported properly, because we do a bit of clay pigeon shooting there, I brought the gun in with me.”

Ecclestone described walking through customs as if it were a familiar ritual. Staff, he said, knew him well. When asked if he had anything to declare, he replied: “No, nothing really, just all the usual personal things,” and continued on his way.

The interruption came only as he exited the area. “One of my people with me said, ‘The police have asked if you would go and see them’,” Ecclestone recalled. He went to speak to officers, who told him they wanted information about the gun he had brought into the country.

Ecclestone said he did not even open the case. He told them it was a shotgun and explained why he had it. The officials then asked for the “blue book” for the firearm – documentation that serves as a kind of passport for the weapon. Ecclestone said he had never heard of it.

“They said, ‘Yes, well anyone with these guns should always have the book, it is like a passport’,” he recounted. They also took his passport as part of the checks.

Ecclestone said he told them he had bought the shotgun in England and taken it into Switzerland “through all the normal channels”, but again he could not produce the blue book. At that point, he said, around four police officers informed him that what he had done amounted to trying to import a gun into Portugal.

“I said, ‘I have not tried to do that. I have come through customs, and here I am with you,’” he recalled of the exchange. The dispute then moved back towards customs, where, according to Ecclestone, officials set out his options.

The customs officer, he said, told him he would need to surrender the gun in Lisbon while authorities examined the case. From there, Ecclestone could either seek to import the weapon, paying duty and applying for a temporary import licence, or leave it behind. “So I said, ‘Well we’d better do that’,” Ecclestone said.

The episode carries an echo of a previous brush with the law over a firearm. In May 2022, Ecclestone was arrested in Brazil after an undeclared LW Seecamp .32-calibre pistol was found in his luggage by an X-ray scan at Viracopos Airport in Campinas, as he prepared to board a private plane to Switzerland. He admitted owning the gun but said he did not know it was in his bag. He was taken to a facility at the airport, posted bail and was then allowed to continue his journey.

Portugal has become a notable backdrop to Ecclestone’s later years. His wife, Fabiana Flosi, has been linked to a property purchase around 15 miles west of Lisbon, reported to be the largest private house sale in Portuguese history at about £35m.

Ecclestone’s presence still looms over Formula One. Involved in the sport since the 1950s, he began as a driver and businessman, moved into team ownership and then became the master deal-maker who wrestled control of television rights and commercial contracts. For decades he shaped F1’s political and financial landscape, stitching together sponsorships and race deals that pushed grand prix racing into new territories and onto millions of screens.

His formal role ended in 2017 when Liberty Media took over the championship’s commercial rights and moved the series into a new era of digital expansion and showpiece events. Yet Ecclestone remains an inescapable reference point for what F1 became under his rule – and, as events in Portugal again show, he is not slipping quietly into the background.