Ecclestone was “tempted” by a buyout of the Renault team in late 2009

Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he was tempted to buy the Renault team at the end of 2009 when the French manufacturer decided to partially withdraw from the Formula 1 team it owns. However, the deal was not concluded because Donald McKenzie, co-founder of CVC, the company that holds the rights to Formula 1, told him that it was not possible due to likely conflicts of interest given Bernie Ecclestone’s responsibilities in F1.

“If we had owned a team, it would have caused us problems. Every time the team appeared on television, people could have said that we were favored,” the F1 chief financial officer told the Daily Telegraph.

In the end, the French team was taken over by the Luxembourg investment fund Genii Capital, owned by Gérard Lopez. However, Ecclestone also specified that it wasn’t the first time he was tempted to buy out a team. In fact, a year earlier, he had a similar idea when Honda withdrew from Formula 1. But the Japanese team was ultimately bought by Ross Brawn.

In these two cases, Honda and Renault, Ecclestone explains that these takeover desires were linked to a wish not to see these teams disappear, which is why when other investors showed interest, he ultimately did not take the step, in addition to the conflicts of interest that it could have involved.