Bernie Ecclestone Detained in Portugal for Undocumented Shotgun

Bernie Ecclestone’s long life on the move hit another legal snag on Monday, this time on the tarmac of a small airfield outside Lisbon.

The 95-year-old former Formula 1 supremo was stopped and briefly detained at Tires airfield, near the resort town of Cascais, after Portuguese police discovered he had brought a shotgun into the country on his private jet without the proper paperwork.

Ecclestone, speaking by phone from Portugal, said he had flown in from Switzerland with the gun for a clay pigeon shooting event and had simply not secured the required “blue book” authorisation to import it.

He landed with his wife Fabiana, who serves as vice-president for sport at Formula 1’s governing body, and passed through customs without issue. The trouble started only when police asked about the weapon and demanded documentation.

According to Ecclestone, the exchange quickly turned into what he described as “unnecessary aggravation”, complicated by the fact that he does not speak Portuguese. The gun, he said, had been used regularly in Switzerland for clay shooting and was intended for a similar exhibition event in Portugal over the weekend.

The standoff ended when his Brazilian-born wife travelled to Lisbon, accompanied by a customs official, to hand the shotgun over to the authorities. Ecclestone said he then signed the documents requested by officials.

“So now we’ve gone through all this and the people in Lisbon have got the gun,” he said.

Portuguese newspapers first broke the story, citing police sources who said the shotgun was found during a routine inspection.

Ecclestone, a former racer who went on to control Formula 1’s commercial rights for roughly four decades before being ousted in 2017, owns a home in the nearby resort area. The incident adds another entry to his list of brushes with firearms regulations.

In 2022, he was briefly detained in Brazil after security staff found an unregistered small handgun in his luggage as he prepared to board a private plane to Switzerland. On that occasion, he admitted owning the gun but said he had not realised it was in his bag, dismissing the case as “silly” and “tiny”.

Two countries, two private jets, two undeclared weapons. At 95, Ecclestone is no longer running Formula 1, but his travels continue to generate headlines of their own.