Bernie the team player

Mr Bernard Charles Ecclestone has many claims to fame – not least as a serial Formula 1 team owner. His earliest foray was in part with his great friend – and brilliant driver at the time – Stuart Lewis-Evans. Ecclestone bought two B-Type Connaughts at that delightful team’s closure sale in 1957, and he ran them in New Zealand and then in Formula 1 into 1958.

He entered them for that year’s Monaco Grand Prix, and during practice three drivers attempted to qualify the cars – Paul Emery, the American ‘Racing Rabbi’ Bruce Kessler… and Mr E himself (above). They were unsuccessful in joining the AC Monaco’s strictly applied ‘16 on the grid’, but never mind – one suspects Bernie the competitor would have thought “I will be back”… and he was, and 50 years later he’s still here, and characteristically he’s still very much in charge.