Bernie Ecclestone interview: F1 circus starts life without its ringmaster – and he’s comfortable being alone

They could hardly see eye-to-eye, but they needed only 10 minutes to tie up the deal that will turn Melbourne into the epicentre of Formula One this weekend.

Bernie Ecclestone, all 5ft 3in of him, said that taking the Australian Grand Prix to Melbourne was one of the easiest contracts he ever signed — and with no more than the traditional handshake with Ron Walker, the promoter who stands 6ft 5in in his socks.

Now the cars are preparing to start their engines on a new season for the first time in four decades without Ecclestone, the ringmaster and ultimate dealmaker.

While Lewis Hamilton begins his bid to win back the world championship on Sunday, Ecclestone will be in his penthouse apartment “above the shop”, on the sixth floor of his Kensington office block. It will be a lonely vigil when he turns on the television to watch events from Australia.

Liberty Media, the American broadcast conglomerate, is moving staff out of Ecclestone’s Princes Gate offices after the completion of its £6billion takeover of Formula One in January and into new headquarters in St James’s Market.

Sacha Woodward-Hill, Ecclestone’s right-hand woman and legal adviser through a series of tumultuous court cases up to his trial in Munich on corruption charges almost three years ago, has left to be general counsel of Liberty’s revamped Formula One, while Duncan Llowarch, the chief finance officer who oversaw the growth of the sport into a £1bn-a-year business, has also gone. In the Melbourne paddock, there will be no Pasquale Lattuneddu, Ecclestone’s eyes and ears for more than two decades, checking every coveted pass and making sure that the grand prix runs smoothly.

Ecclestone is part bemused and part sad that his rule is over, even if Liberty has given him the title of chairman emeritus — a role that baffles Ecclestone. If there is bitterness, it doesn’t show, even if he is preparing for life away from the sport he can claim to have created.

“I will find plenty to do,” he said. “I have properties around the world, so I will look after them. I will go to a few races, I suppose, although I am not sure I am going to be a very good ambassador, if that’s what they want. I will stay here — even if the place is empty and I am all on my own.”

Ecclestone knows he may be gone but he will not be forgotten: earlier this month, friends led by Flavio Briatore, the flamboyant former team principal at Renault, threw him a surprise party at a Mayfair restaurant. The guest list was headed by Prince Albert of Monaco and the Crown Prince of Bahrain.

Sebastian Vettel, the four-time world champion and Ferrari driver who wants to break the four-year Mercedes winning streak, has also called to check on his old backgammon partner. And Ecclestone would be more than delighted if Ferrari could break the Mercedes stranglehold on Formula One, much as he admires Hamilton.

Bernie Ecclestone

It is 10 years since a Ferrari driver — Kimi Raikkonen — won a world championship and winter testing has had the fans buzzing with optimism after the Scuderia seemed to have adapted well to new regulations that have produced wider cars with fatter tyres, making them as much as five seconds a lap quicker.

Ecclestone, with his long experience, has been this way before, though. “Yes, it would be super for the sport for Ferrari and Seb to come back,” he said. “But they have looked good before and not lived up to it. People have probably had enough of Mercedes winning everything and it would be good for the sport to mix it up a bit.”

Ferrari have thrown tens of millions at developing their car for 2017 and pundits say it has the look of a winner. But no one knows how much Mercedes have in reserve and despite Hamilton’s warning that his rivals have been sandbagging during the eight-day test, it is hard to believe the Englishman’s team do not have plenty in reserve.

Mercedes started their new car before the Australian Grand Prix last year and are already working on developments for the summer, well ahead of the regulation changes. “Mercedes are probably still the team to beat,” Ecclestone said. “They know how to win because they have been doing it for the past four years.”

Apart from missing Ecclestone, there will also be no world champion on the Melbourne grid.

Nico Rosberg shocked Formula One by quitting within days of winning his maiden title, ground down by the stress of attempting to beat his Mercedes team-mate. That opened up the opportunity for Valtteri Bottas to move in alongside Hamilton this season, but few believe the Finn has the raw speed and nerve to challenge the three-times world champion.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone worries that win or lose this championship, Hamilton may be getting to the end of his tether after a tortured 2016 during which he was the subject of huge controversy for his erratic behaviour. Ecclestone fears Formula One’s biggest draw may decide he has had enough and, like Rosberg, walk away from a sport he has lit up for a decade.

“He may just be fed up with being criticised,” Ecclestone said. “He has other things in his life and he doesn’t need the money, does he? I hope Lewis doesn’t go because he is the one driver everyone wants to see — and the new owners can’t afford for their biggest driver to walk, can they?”