From crafty Cockney to the king of F1

FORMULA ONE cranks up again at this time of year, much to the delight, no doubt, of Bernie Ecclestone.

The 80-year-old billionaire runs the sport as president and chief executive of Formula One Management — and is the focus of a new book by Tom Bower, a journalist whose hard-hitting books about Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell and Conrad Black, led to the nickname ‘the undertaker’.

Bower’s book is a superbly enjoyable romp through Ecclestone’s wheeling and dealing, to put it politely, as he reaches the top, with plenty of sharp practice exposed. Yet Bower says the sport would not exist without him.