When Ecclestone Gave The QPR Team Talk...and The Buying-the-Club Story

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I recall reading about a Flavio Briatore team talk, one time last season; don't recall hearing about a Bernie Ecclestone team talk.

Came across from a couple of weeks ago:

The Times/Kevin Eason - July 4, 2008 - Eason at large: David Coulthard could enliven the Beeb
And so, from one of the prettiest sporting venues in the world to, er, Silverstone. I have promised faithfully some of the chaps at the British Racing Drivers' Club, who own Silverstone, that I will never again refer to the venerable circuit as "the former airfield" because it sends out all the wrong messages about it being a bit rickety and windswept.

Which, of course, it is. But it is all we have got and the BRDC have big spending plans to transform the place, so fingers crossed that the mercurial Bernie Ecclestone keeps the faith and keeps the British Grand Prix running at the old place.

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Of course, Bernie has a slight distraction from his day job running Formula One these days, since he joined forces with Flavio Briatore to buy Queen's Park Rangers. Bernie says he doesn't play much part in the running of the Coca-Cola Championship club, leaving that to Briatore, who doubles as team principal at Renault and will be in his usual place on the Silverstone pit wall this weekend.

But Bernie tells me he did once give the QPR players a team talk before a game of, what seemed to me, such admirable common sense that the Football Association should hire him immediately as a consultant. "I just went in and told them I had no idea how to kick a ball so I wouldn't bother trying to tell them how to do it," he says. "But I told them that if the referee got his yellow card out to book them, they should say, 'Thank you, referee' and get out of the way immediately and get on with the game. If you start arguing with a referee, he will remember you and he will look to get you into trouble next time. There is no point in arguing, he will always win." See? Perfect common sense.

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There was a funny story relating to the sale of QPR to the dynamic duo in SportPro magazine this month. I have no idea whether it is true or not and haven't checked with either Bernie or Briatore, but I like it so you are getting it.

The pair had been looking to buy a club for some time - Ecclestone was in the frame at Chelsea before Roman Abramovich turned up on the scene - so the word was out that they were in the market. But Briatore was also on the lookout to buy a restaurant in London to add to his burgeoning empire. So he gets a call from somebody offering him QPR. He thinks, "Mmmmm, sounds good" and rings Bernie to ask him if he knows a restaurant called QPR. At which point the diminutive genius was forced to put his old friend right. Probably rubbish, but I like it. The Times