NOVEMBER 5, 2001

Ecclestone gets richer

Bernie Ecclestone once again heads The Sunday Times's list of high earners in Britain in 2001 with an income estimated to be worth around $1.1bn in the last 12 months.

BERNIE ECCLESTONE once again heads The Sunday Times's list of high earners in Britain in 2001 with an income estimated to be worth around $1.1bn in the last 12 months. This was primarily as a result of the sale of 25% of SLEC. The researchers made several mistakes not least the fact that Ecclestone did not earn the money as he no longer owns any part of the SLEC organization. He works for SLEC and will continue to do so until his agreement with the shareholders runs out at the end of 2005.

The money earned belongs to an Ecclestone Family trust company called the Bambino Trust, which is owned by Ecclestone's daughters.

The Daily Mail also had a survey of salaries last week and concluded that Eddie Irvine is Britain's highest paid racing driver with a salary of $8.7m from Jaguar. David Coulthard was estimated to earn $5.8 million. Irvine, however, is only the third highest paid sportsman in Britain with boxer Lennox Lewis heading the list with a mighty income of $23 million. Soccer star David Beckham is second with earnings of $9.5m.

This may cause some interest in Dearborn, Michigan, where the new management of the Ford Motor Company are looking at budgets for the coming year.

This year David Coulthard won two Grands Prix and finished second in the World Championship. Irvine finished third at Monaco and fifth in the United States GP and ended up 12th in the Drivers' World Championship.