Bernie Ecclestone Detained in Portugal Over Shotgun Incident

Bernie Ecclestone’s long, controversial life in the spotlight added another unexpected chapter 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 required documentation.

Ecclestone, speaking by phone from Portugal, said he had flown in from Switzerland with the weapon for a clay pigeon shooting event and had not realised he needed extra paperwork — specifically a so-called “blue book” — to import it.

He landed with his wife Fabiana, a vice-president for sport at Formula 1’s governing body, expecting a quiet arrival at the airfield close to their home in the adjoining resort area. Instead, routine checks turned into what he described as “unnecessary aggravation”.

Ecclestone said he had already passed through customs when police officers approached and asked about the gun, then demanded the relevant documentation he did not have. The shotgun, according to Portuguese newspapers citing police sources, had been found during a standard inspection.

Unable to speak Portuguese, Ecclestone relied on his Brazilian-born wife to help untangle the situation. Fabiana later travelled to Lisbon with a customs official to hand the gun over to the authorities.

“So now we’ve gone through all this and the people in Lisbon have got the gun,” Ecclestone said, adding that he had signed the documents requested by officials.

The incident carried a familiar ring. In 2022, Ecclestone was briefly detained in Brazil after security staff at an airport discovered an unregistered small handgun in his luggage as he prepared to board a private flight to Switzerland. He admitted owning that weapon but said he did not know it was in his bag, dismissing the matter at the time as “silly” and “tiny”.

This latest brush with firearms regulations, at 95, underlines that even far from the paddock and long after his 40-year reign over Formula 1’s commercial empire ended in 2017, Ecclestone remains a figure who rarely travels quietly.