Formula One legend and 95-year-old British billionaire Bernie Ecclestone has sold one superyacht and put another up for sale after clearing out £500m-worth of cars.
The former F1 chief made his fortune transforming the sport into the global juggernaut it is today and lavished his riches on an incredible array of vehicles down the years.
Ecclestone is worth around £2.4bn and confirmed he has flogged his superyacht ‘Petara’, named after his children Petra and Tamara from his second marriage to Slavica Radic.
‘We just sold it,’ he told Bild. His third wife Fabiana, 49, added: ‘We only used it eight days in a year. We don’t need such a big yacht for that.’
It is not known who purchased the superyacht or for how much it eventually went for but the luxury vessel was previously valued at £17m and annual running costs are £1.7m.
Despite the couple’s confirmation of sale, it remains on yacht-broker Edmiston’s website, listed as having a £4.4m reduction in price.
Petara can accommodate 12 guests along with a crew of 13, is 190ft long and was built in a specialist superyacht yard in Turkey back in 2005.
It is capable of trans-Atlantic crossings and has a garage that the brokers say could be turned into a beach club.
Ecclestone has also put a smaller yacht, thought to be Force Blue, which he bought at auction in 2021, up for sale as he ‘clears out his life’, say Bild.
Force Blue was originally put up for sale having been taken off fellow Formula One legend Flavio Briatore who lost it in court after tax evasion charges.
Ecclestone spent 40 years at the helm of Formula One before Liberty Media’s buyout for £6.4m in 2017.
He now lives in a chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland along with Fabiana and five-year-old son, Ace.
And the yacht sales will add to his already vast fortune after he sold his extraordinary collection of 69 Grand Prix cars to Red Bull co-owner Mark Mateschitz earlier this year.
The total sale price to Mateschitz was never revealed but the collection was valued at around £500m.
Ecclestone told Reuters in March: ‘They’ve gone to a good home, which is the real thing I was interested in making sure.
‘They’ll present them somewhere, into a museum so people can have a look at them for a change which has never happened before.
‘I’m more than happy that’s where they’ve gone. I wouldn’t have sold them to [just] anyone unless I knew where they were going to finish up.
‘They’re going to build something like a museum and that’s where they’ll be.’
Mateschitz said: ‘It will be carefully preserved, expanded over the years, and, in the near future, it will be made accessible to the public.’
The clear-out follows a 2023 court case in London in which Ecclestone admitted misleading authorities about overseas assets and paid £750m in back taxes.
The case ended with a 17-month suspended sentence, sparing him jail but closing a turbulent chapter in his long career.
His family divide their time between Switzerland and Brazil and say they are focused on family life and raising their young son together in the Alps.
Their approach, detailed in a lengthy interview with the German publication on his 95th birthday, is calm and structured – no screen time for Ace during the week, firm rules on homework and an emphasis on conversation at dinner.
Ecclestone, once the most powerful figure in motorsport, is now enjoying a far quieter existence.
‘Ace is a wonderful boy,’ he told Bild. ‘He’s bright, curious and interested in everything.’ Fabiana added that the pair work as a team, explaining that her husband’s patience often balances her firmer approach.
At 95, Ecclestone’s family tree is remarkable. His eldest daughter, Deborah, recently turned 70, while his youngest, Ace, has only just started school.
‘It’s quite something,’ he said. ‘You look at your oldest and youngest and realise how much has happened in between.’
Ace attends an international preschool near the family’s home and speaks English, Portuguese and Swiss-German.
Fabiana has said she wants her son to appreciate normal routines despite his parents’ wealth.
