Bernie Ecclestone's Shotgun Incident in Portugal

Bernie Ecclestone’s latest brush with the law did not come at a racetrack or a boardroom, but on the tarmac of a quiet airfield outside Lisbon.

The 95-year-old former Formula One boss was stopped by authorities at Tires airfield near Cascais on Monday after police discovered he had brought a shotgun into Portugal on his private jet without the proper documentation.

Ecclestone told Reuters by telephone from Portugal that the gun was not a clandestine weapon but his regular shotgun, which he said he had brought from Switzerland for clay pigeon shooting. What he did not have, he admitted, was the required “blue book” authorising its import into the country.

He had landed with his wife Fabiana, a vice-president for sport at Formula One’s governing body, at the small airfield that serves the upscale coastal resort area where the couple own a home. Ecclestone said he cleared customs without incident before police intervened and asked about the firearm.

That is when the trip turned sour.

According to Ecclestone, officers requested documentation for the shotgun, triggering what he described as “unnecessary aggravation” as the situation escalated from a routine arrival to a legal tangle over paperwork.

With Ecclestone unable to speak Portuguese, it was his Brazilian-born wife who took charge of resolving the standoff. She travelled to Lisbon, accompanied by a customs official, to hand the shotgun over to the authorities.

“So now we’ve gone through all this and the people in Lisbon have got the gun,” Ecclestone said. “I’ve signed some documents as they wanted.”

Portuguese newspapers first revealed the incident, citing police sources who said the shotgun was found during a routine check. No details were given on potential penalties or whether Ecclestone could reclaim the weapon at a later date.

For a man who once controlled the commercial side of Formula One for four decades, the scene was a far cry from the paddock power he wielded until his ousting in 2017. Yet the episode carries a familiar ring.

In 2022, Ecclestone was briefly detained in Brazil after security staff at Viracopos airport near São Paulo found an unregistered small handgun in his luggage as he prepared to board a private plane to Switzerland. He acknowledged owning that gun but said he did not know it was in his bag, dismissing the affair at the time as “silly” and “tiny”.

Two countries, two airports, two guns. Different continents, same problem: a weapon and missing paperwork.

This time, the story unfolded not amid the chaos of a major international hub but at a discreet airfield serving one of Portugal’s wealthiest stretches of coastline. Yet even there, the rules on firearms proved non-negotiable.