Bernie Ecclestone has rejected claims he was arrested in Portugal after arriving with a shotgun, insisting the incident amounted to nothing more than an administrative hold‑up.
The 95-year-old former Formula 1 supremo said he was stopped at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais on Monday, having flown in from Switzerland with a shotgun he planned to use in a clay pigeon shooting competition.
According to Ecclestone, four police officers and customs officials met him on arrival and asked about the firearm. He said he walked over to them and asked what they needed, only to be told they wanted information about the gun he had brought into the country.
The British businessman, who ran F1 for nearly four decades until 2017, said he had previously transported the same shotgun from England to Switzerland and expected no difficulty in doing the same on this trip, noting that airport staff there know him “very well”.
This time, though, the paperwork caught up with him. Ecclestone said he did not have the correct documents required to officially import the weapon into Portugal and was questioned for around an hour before being told he would have to surrender it.
He stressed that Portuguese police were “very helpful” throughout and dismissed reports that he had been arrested, characterising the episode as a documentation issue rather than a criminal matter.
