Bernie Ecclestone is someone who spearheaded the rise of F1 throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. He helped transform F1 from a niche sport to a global brand. The British business was “The Man” when it came to securing deals around the world. In 2018, he even opened up about his negotiation qualities when he sat down to have a chat with Nico Rosberg on his podcast.

The former world champion was in awe of Ecclestone’s qualities to crack deals. Rosberg posed Ecclestone his quote, “When you get the girl in the room, everything is possible”. Bernie, in typical Bernie fashion, quipped “That’s called negotiation”. He then went on to joke about it, “I’ve forgotten how to do it now I’m getting too old”.

However, he went on to explain, “Firstly you’ve got to get people to trust you”. Ecclestone further added, “I can travel the world doing deals on a handshake…lots and lots of deals I’ve done…I’ve done on a handshake”. He added one last piece of wisdom about the art of doing deals. “You realize you’ve made a mistake don’t complain. Get on with it.”

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In the decades during which Bernie reigned over F1, he has laid the foundation for the mega-brand that F1 is today. It has involved many handshake deals, pen and paper deals, and some crazy ones. Let us take a look at one such crazy piece of business tactics by Ecclestone.

Bernie Ecclestone pulls out the Concorde agreement from the bin

Bernie Ecclestone has been lauded for being one of the best negotiators in the world. However, even when you’re the best, sometimes you need to resort to curious ways to secure that signature. On Nico Rosberg’s podcast, Ecclestone went on to reveal one such incident.

The former F1 supremo recollected “I think we might have negotiated the original Concorde agreement or something.” Ecclestone along with close colleague Max Mosley was negotiating with the FIA staff. That is when Ecclestone noticed the FIA party noting down things on a piece of paper.

However, they decided to throw all the pieces of paper in the wastepaper basket before leaving the room. Bernie did not hesitate before diving for the basket, “I said to Max get all those papers out”. He went on to add, “I don’t speak French but Max is perfect. If I look at those I can see where we went wrong”.

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Sounds silly now, but the Concorde agreement would end up being the backbone of Formula 1 for the years to come. It dictates most of the financial running of the sport and has been amended 8 times with the most recent one in 2021.