F1 owner CVC’s chief Donald Mackenzie on Wednesday gave Bernie Ecclestone a boost.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie, CVC’s co-founder and chairman, has not always seen eye-to-eye with F1’s controversial ‘supremo’, and has even warned that Ecclestone risks expulsion over the Gerhard Gribkowsky bribery affair.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Mackenzie was called as a witness in the Munich trial.<\/p>\n
He backed Ecclestone’s defence.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors claim 83-year-old Ecclestone bribed the now jailed Gribkowsky to the tune of $44 million so as to sell the sport to a preferred buyer and retain power.<\/p>\n
But Mackenzie said Ecclestone in fact never asked that part of CVC’s deal would involve keeping him as chief executive.<\/p>\n
“At no point did he ever say that he expected that,” he told the court.<\/p>\n
In fact, Mackenzie said, Ecclestone had told him: “If you want me, then I might be available.”<\/p>\n
“We showed him a services contract because he never showed any interest and did not negotiate,” German reports quote Mackenzie as testifying.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie also backed the claims of Ecclestone’s lawyers about Gribkowsky’s character, depicting him as “arrogant and very self-confident”.<\/p>\n
And he also denied that Ecclestone was happy if CVC bought F1’s commercial rights for a low price so long as he would remain in power.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie recalled when CVC, during negotiations, valued the rights at a billion dollars.<\/p>\n
“He (Ecclestone) began to laugh heartily and said I should not waste his or the shareholders’ time,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie said Ecclestone later slid a piece of paper across the table containing the words: “2 billion”.<\/p>\n
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