Ecclestone Surrenders Shotgun After Portugal Airport Stop

The former Formula One chief executive said he had already flown the gun from England to Switzerland without difficulty and had expected no trouble in Portugal, where he keeps licensed weapons and where airport staff know him well. By his account, customs cleared him on arrival, and only afterwards did an officer ask to search his bag. The officers requested a "blue book", the documentation Portugal requires for importing a firearm; Ecclestone said he never travels with such papers. Accounts of what happened next differ. Portuguese media reported that he had been arrested, but Ecclestone firmly denied this, telling the Press Association that the police had been "very helpful". The Public Security Police (PSP) said its border officers had made no arrest and referred enquiries to the Tax and Customs Authority in Lisbon, which could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ecclestone said his wife, Fabiana Flosi, had gone to Lisbon to surrender the gun or pay whatever duty was needed to bring it into the country legally, while he waited at home for the matter to be settled. It is not the first time firearms have caused him trouble at an airport. In 2022 he was arrested in Brazil for illegally carrying a handgun as he boarded a private plane to Switzerland, and was ordered to pay 6,000 Brazilian reais, roughly £1,000, to local authorities. He later dismissed that case as a "silly, tiny little incident".