Four muggers attacked Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and his partner Fabiana Flosi on Wednesday night outside his offices in Princes Gate, opposite Hyde Park. The pair were returning to the eighth floor penthouse apartment above the Formula One offices at around 10.30pm on Wednesday night. The 80-year-old was punched and kicked as the robbers stole watches and jewellery. After the attack Bernie was taken to hospital to be treated for a minor head injury and he was back at work the following morning. Police believe that the attack was carried out by a gang that has been pulling off similar attacks on the rich and famous in recent years and believe that Ecclestone was specifically targeted.
Go get ‘em BCE!
They look for victims, they look for anyone that looks like a soft touch and not too bright,” he contended. “The people that look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at. I think here for the race weekend they probably watch TV and see who’s not qualified in the top ten and think, ‘well they must be a bit stupid otherwise they would qualify in the top ten obviously’. So they are victims.”
My word, that’s just shocking. I hope Mr E is OK.
Whilst I don’t want to make light of the abuse that Bernie’s suffered, I couldn’t help see some irony.
In November during the Brazilian GP, British driver Jenson Button and his entourage evaded a kidnap attempt. Now in London Bernie and his partner Fabiana Flosi, the Brazilian GP Marketing VP are mugged…. is that some kind of British thug reprisal, proving they don’t mess up when commiting a felony?
Not for the first time, if memory serves.
I abhor this behaviour, but before I’d read the story I couldn’t help thinking from the headline that now he understands how race promotors feel. Speedy recovery to him
Hmmm, he probably was a soft target.
after what happened to Jenson in Brazil can we expect the masses to call for the British GP to be canned?
Well he did say in Sao paulo that this sort of thing happens all the time…
Perhaps Bernie should hire some bodyguards…being he is a billionaire. You can’t take your money with you, Bernie, if your boxed in a coffin.
[...] Bernie Ecclestone, atracado al salir de sus oficinas (ING) joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/bernie-gets-mugged/ por categoriacerdosya hace 3 segundos [...]
Nice to see him bouncing back, he really is quite the resilient one!
Was he being a bit silly like Button in Brazil?!
Lee & others
Comparing Interlagos to Knightsbridge is just silly…
Poor Bernie, I feel sorry for him, in the end, he’s an 80 year old man. I wonder why he doesn’t have bodyguards.
Blimey, they’re brave aren’t they? No one f%$&s with Bernie.
I’d be looking over my shoulder if I were them…
Maybe Joe, but there is a touch of irony there.
Still it’s out of order punching and kicking an 80 year old man, glad he’s ok.
Come on Bernie, set the dogs on them, they will regret messing with you.
Bernie and his then wife were also mugged some years ago outside their home in Chelsea. I was punched in the face, totally unsolicited, by one of three passing teenager in a very respectable south London suburb a couple of years ago, and I’m 75. At least I wasn’t robbed. It seemed the lad did it to impress his friends …
It’s the unfortunate state of the world that this can now happen anywhere, and Bernie and his partner have my deep sympathy.
Let’s hope that after this traumatic experience he doesn’t end up confining himself to his own home, refusing to go out of the door and surrounding himself with a large collection of cats!!
It’s not so silly, Joe. A month ago you critcised a lot Sao Paulo, and now Bernie gets mugged in London, the main city of one of the richest countries in the world. Oh, there is the difference, you are rich, we are poor. There, you minimze (or try to), but when its here, it’s a calamity.
Like Bernie said, things like this happen everywhere, every time. Unfortunately, it happened to him, who defended Brazil a month ago, not to someone that said that we live in natural state.
Renan,
See other replies
I remember a quote from Mr E when he was threatened in the Balkans once ( Croatia?) He reputably replied “don’t miss me the first time” . Anyway if I was the mugger i would be lying very low. I would not be worrying about the police.
Happened to a mate of mine in Piccadilly a month or two ago. Watch and wallet. He grabbed one who dropped the wallet the other ran. Luckily this was all watched by two policemen who were sitting in a parked van. They went after the watchman (strange film) and got him and the watch.
Needless to say mate is younger and fitter than The Bolt.
Must admit I’m surprised he lives in such a vulnerable area.
He does like views though. IIRC he used to have a penthouse in Nine Elms that had some connnection with Jeffrey Archer.
sorry. I apologise for the tasteless remark I made above. Mr E, Joe and the readers of this blog deserve much wittier humour than that.
Indeed, there’s far more criminals living in Knightsbridge these days.
I thought these things happened only in Brazil, Joe…………………………..
I guess they should also cancel the British GP now?!
Hypocrite…
Igor,
You may not have noticed that there is crime everywhere in the world. Should we therefore cancel all the Formula 1 races? Knightsbridge and Interlagos are not comparable at all and if you think they are, you are obviously rather a parochial person and have no idea what you are talking about. As such, I really do not care what you think about me.
Certainly scary indeed, I wish both a speedy recovery ….. but it is a bit ironic that Bernie is sometimes compared to the character “Scrooge”. I hope that was not the ghost of F1 future!
Karma is a bitch!
When asked to comment, McLaren driver Jenson Button reprised Bernie’s concern for the much more serious attack Button suffered through in Sao Paulo:
They weren’t mugging him, they were “just trying to sell him a t-shirt”.
You’re a billionaire. should have a least one bodyguard when walking the streets. Your life is more precious then your billions!
£200,000? Did he wear the Bentley on his pinkie or ring finger?
Mugging is bad enough, but to kick an 80 year old when he’s down is truly despicable.
Props to him for going back to work the next morning. He should delegate and take a few days off.
The world is a dangerous place, Cynthia
[...] Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/bernie-gets-mugged/ [...]
Ah, developing-country mentality.
‘Crime happens in your country too so yours is the same as ours’.
Crime is worse in Brazil. Simple statement. Don’t get your knickers in a twist about it. No one is insulting Brazil, just making a statement. The only thing you are showing is your insecurity not to take one single piece of criticism.
Brazil has hotter women anyway. Go play with one.
Sorry OT
Just finished listening to “aside with Joe” at Sidepostcast. Just thought if I could request a 2 year sub on GP+. Appreciate if you can provide that option.
A small token to help the cash flow !!
Also I have spent wonderful hours reading your blog and GP+ over the season. Well done and look forward to the new season.
After seeing the pics and reading Mckenzies write up, i wouldnt be surprised to read one day that someone was trying to get rid of him.
Joe, I’m wondering +why+ you left out the most interesting part of this news item.
During the assault, Lord Ecclestone of Biggin was accompanied by his Brazilian girlfriend.
Surely deserves a profile?
What’s the attraction, let me guess, they share a passion for Japanese fine porcelain?
Come on Joe, fill us in.
Colin,
I wrote that she was there. She’s a very smart cookie.
There’s a photo in today’s Daily Express. He’s really got a shiner there:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/214041/I-got-a-whacking-says-Bernie-Ecclestone
I think this is terrible, looking at the story below, they did not say/ask anything – as he says had they asked he would have given, they didn’t need to kick an 80 year old in the head!?! I know that 2 wrongs don’t make a right, but I really hope this gang turn up floating in the Thames in the near future with Bernie’s connections!
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/214041/I-got-a-whacking-says-Bernie-Ecclestone
I read somewhere that the previous week he had made a comment about how only simple people get mugged in London. Karma Mr E. Sometimes it’s better so say nothing!
Nice work with the 31 year old Brazillian girlfriend. He must be so proud!
Hayden,
I am not sure the newspaper got the age right
That he went back to work the next day means that he’s applying the same standard to himself as he did with Button.
GWS Bernie, sad days when 80 year olds are getting attacked and robbed.
I think Cobbs might be right, not too sure I would want to be in the muggers shoes myself, Leopards do not change their spots.
Was it Bernie who commented after Jenson’s close call in Brazil the London was just as dangerous ?
At least Max only got a whipping…
Dear all
I must admit that initially the irony occured to me, but, at the end of the day, Bernie didn’t rob anyone, he didn’t use violence, and, the circuits which get charged increasingly expensive fees consent to the deal. And, Bernie has never said that he is inspired by St Vincent de Paul.
Four on two, one of them 80, and not a former front rower,(I’d say the other a women, but that wouldn’t be PC). Real heroes. Thank God that it wasn’t worse.
As much as I don’t have a poster of Bernie above my bed, I admire that he showed up at the office the next day.
Go Bernie:-)
MarkR
The post – attack pics? (not nice)
My mom is Bernie’s age. She’s been atacked at random twice since she decdedly maybe rashly to live in London.
Her friends also experienced the same, though they were almost a generation older. No bling involved.
I’d like to flippantly say that Bernie’s girl ought to have hobbled their assailants with stilletto, must be an awful wake – up for her .
Has no-one calculated how much damage you do to a person of Bernie’s age with but a tap?
On the brain?
I’d expand that, but I’m sickened, and if you wish, please look into the eggshell theory of manslaughter.
Privately I rate BE, not for having a young girl on his arm, but for stepping out on his own.
-j
Just as a rather late comment to this article; to those that are comparing Jensen’s Sao Paulo run in with Bernie’s altercation just remember this one small thing the Knightsbridge muggers weren’t armed with a machine gun!
@virgopunk
Bernie wasn’t in a bullet-proof armoured car either.
A very sad and disturbing story-on many levels.
But one has to be thankful that Mr. E. has not disappeared into a gated community with high personal security and limited public access. Whatever one may think of his personality or personal life-and I like the idea of a successful older gentlemen being able to enjoy an evening in a great city in the company of a younger woman-one has to acknowledge that he has accomplished great things in Formula One in recent years. New venues, full car fields, and tight competition are great achievements for Mr. E’s efforts in these difficult times!
Shame, no matter to whom it happens.
No excuse for coming out with smarty jokes when the main story is something we wish it would not happen to us or loved ones. Guess this is the problem with public figures, we think we know them well and personally, thus we can throw quick opinions no matter how insensitive they are.
Dear all
Have just been thinking- had this been more severe (and thank God it wasn’t), and Bernie had expired, I am given to wonder how f1 would be looking now.
There has been, as far as I am aware, no mention of a succession plan.
If there was no succession plan, and Bernie had died, imagine the power vacuum in f1, and, because nature abhors a vacuum, the brawling and politicking that would almost certainly ensue.
Could have been very damaging.
And, f1 would seem, as I imagine it, a strange place without BCE.
Cheers
Markr
Mark R Ryan,
If CVC has no plan of succession then they are fools. I am sure they are not that… If fools can become billionaires, then there is hope for me!
Dear Joe
And, I’d be the world’s richest man.
Nevertheless, as the GFC proved- fools can become billionaires, and back again.
I wasn’t necessarily imlying that CVC didn’t have a succession plan, though I didn’t articulate that, so much as that without Bernie as the point man for CVC, perhaps other powers in f1 might be interested in reducing the power of CVC.
Who knows, we may not see whether I’m right or not for another 20 years- any 80 year old who can cop a beating and front up the next day is cut from a different cloth.
Cheers
Markr
Wow, i hope everything goes well, crossfinger for this