Ecclestone talks about gun: 'She immediately thought it was a stupid idea'

About a month ago, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was in the news because of an alleged arrest. The Briton was said to be arrested at the airport in Brazil for possession of a weapon. In a new interview, Ecclestone tells more about the incident.

After the incident, the billionaire already spoke to the media about what had happened, but in an interview with German television station RTL/ntv, Ecclestone went on to talk about the strange event. What looked like a sensational news story turned out to be very disappointing in reality. From Ecclestone's point of view, there was little to worry about. The Briton had previously stated that the weapon had not been reported to the authorities because the semi-automatic pistol would never be used.

The former F1 boss had given the gun to his wife Fabiana to scare off any attackers. Ecclestone says: "I thought to myself, 'not a bad idea'. But Fabiana immediately thought it was an idiotic idea, because any attacker would probably have a much bigger weapon. She could shoot with it, though, and that's also just legal in Brazil." The problem was that Ecclestone was still carrying the weapon when he arrived at the airport and was stopped by security.

Ecclestone describes the situation as hilarious, as the security guards had no idea what to do. "They had no idea," says the Brit. "They had to report it, but had no idea to whom. They kept arguing for an hour and a half. The airport had closed by then; we couldn't leave, so we just had a nice chat about Formula One." When security finally entered the incident, the computer crashed: "It was really just a comedy."