Ecclestone is called bad boy by wife

Bernie Ecclestone is officially the 'bad boy' of formula one.

His wife, Brazilian Fabiana Flosi, proudly and prominently wore a t-shirt bearing the words 'Good girls love bad boys' as they strolled together in the Austin paddock on Friday.

Ecclestone, F1's 83-year-old chief executive, has spent the week in London testifying in a multi million pound lawsuit, amid the Gerhard Gribkowsky bribery scandal.

On Thursday, Ecclestone's former legal advisor Stephen Mullens told the court he suspects the diminutive Briton may have been behind a "horrific" robbery in 2009.

Asked if he thinks Ecclestone "orchestrated" the crime because of a dispute involving his former wife Slavica, Mullens admitted: "It crossed my mind that he may have."

According to Germany's Bild newspaper, however, Ecclestone might actually be Fabiana's 'bad boy' because F1 teams are angry with him about the unfair distribution of revenue under the new financial arrangements.

Red Bull, for example, is getting an 'appearance fee' of $72 million this year, while Ferrari gets a whopping $99 million, on top of lucrative Concorde Agreement prize money.

Struggling Lotus, however - although with only a few less points than Ferrari in 2013 - gets no such appearance bonus, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

Related topics