Bernard Charles Ecclestone was born in a small Suffolk village, the son of a trawler captain, and spent his early childhood in the town of Wangford, near Southwold. The family moved to Bexleyheath in southeast London and Ecclestone left school at 16 and went to work at the local gasworks. His passion was motorcycle scrambling and he began competing immediately after the war. As machinery was scarce he began buying and selling motorcycle spare parts, doing the business in his spare time. He built up the spares business and then went into business with Fred Compton to form the Compton & Ecclestone motorcycle dealership.

Bernie in action in his Cooper Mk V at Brands in 1951

His aspirations as a driver took a knock at Brands Hatch in 1953 when he collided with his friend, and fellow car dealer Bill Whitehouse and found himself in the car park behind Paddock Hill Bend! Bernie ran a Kieft CK 51 for much of the 1953 season.

Bernie decided to concentrate on business which grew to include the Weekend Car Auctions firm, loan financing and property. In 1957 Ecclestone returned to the sport as manager of Stuart Lewis-Evans. He ran a pair of Connaught cars for Lewis-Evans, Roy Salvadori, Archie Scott-Brown and Ivor Bueb. He even tried to qualify one of the cars himself at Monaco in 1958. At the end of the year Ecclestone abandoned the sport again following the death  of Lewis-Evans but in the early 1960s his friendship with Salvadori, who was by then running the Cooper team, led to a meeting with Jochen Rindt (who's wife, Nina was the daughter of Curt Lincoln). Ecclestone became Rindt's manager and business partner and in 1968 and 1969 he was involved in running the Lotus Formula 2 factory team which was running Rindt and Graham Hill. At the start of 1972 he bought  the Brabham Team from Ron Tauranac and set about turning it into a winning force. He was one of the founders of FOCA in 1974, along with Chapman, Teddy Mayer, Max Mosley, Ken Tyrrell (who also began his career in 500s) and Frank Williams. He led the team owners in a battle with the FIA in 1975 for a new system of entries and appearance money being paid to all the teams.

In 1978 Ecclestone became Chief Executive of FOCA, with Mosley as his legal advisor, and a new battle began with the FIA's Jean-Marie Balestre. The fight for the commercial control of the sport continued until March 1981 when the Concorde Agreement gave FOCA the right to negotiate TV contracts.

That year Brabham won the World Championship with Nelson Piquet. After more success with Brabham, Bernie sold the team to concentrate on the administration of Formula 1. He has since played a key role in turning F1 into a highly successful, global business and made himself rather wealthy as a result.