Formula One chief Ecclestone set to hear of German court date

Formula One is expecting German prosecutors to announce formal court proceedings against Bernie Ecclestone as soon as Thursday, a move that is expected to trigger the chief executive standing down as a director.

Peter Brabeck, chairman of the F1 board, will almost certainly convene a meeting of directors immediately, at which the board is expected to agree a plan thought to have been suggested by Mr Ecclestone himself that he stand down as a director but carry on as chief executive.

Asked whether he was planning to stand down from the board, Mr Ecclestone said: "Not at the moment."

But he added: "This is nothing new. This is what was always expected. Let's see what happens. It really depends on exactly who is saying what, I don't know."

Mr Ecclestone was indicted in July by German prosecutors on bribery allegations and has been waiting since then on a decision from a Munich court on whether the case would proceed.

An announcement from Germany is thought to have been prepared and a trial date provisionally set for April 23. Mr Ecclestone is expected to mount a strong defence and to want to continue to run F1 even during the trial.

But the F1 board is likely to ask directors to become more involved in the day-to-day running of F1, with Mr Brabeck and vice-chairman Donald Mackenzie, co-founder of F1's biggest shareholder CVC, the most obvious board members to assume those extra responsibilities.

The German court said in September it was delaying a decision on bringing Mr Ecclestone to trial to allow lawyers for the F1 chief executive more time to study the indictment and prepare their response.

In the meantime, the 83 year-old F1 supremo has been in court in London defending himself in a civil case brought by German media company Constantin Medien claiming $140m damages.

Constantin alleged F1 was undervalued when it was sold to CVC in 2005. The judge hearing the seven-week case is expected to give his ruling in due course.

Munich prosecutors brought the indictment against Mr Ecclestone following the conviction on corruption charges of Gerhard Gribkowsky, former German banker, for receiving payments from Mr Ecclestone and Bambino, an Ecclestone family trust, totalling $44m.

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Mr Gribkowsky was BayernLB's chief risk officer when the bank was a shareholder in F1 and he was instrumental in the sale of the bank's stake to CVC.

Mr Ecclestone was a witness in the trial of Mr Gribkowsky, who was jailed for eight and a half years in 2012.

The F1 chief executive has always claimed that the payments were made to Mr Gribkowsky because he was being "shaken down" by the German banker over his tax arrangements.

BayernLB said last month it was working to bring civil charges against Mr Ecclestone and would be filing a suit against him in January claiming damages of $400m.

Swiss prosecutors have also launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the $44m payments and a lawsuit has been filed in the US by a private equity group claiming Mr Ecclestone conspired to prevent it from buying F1 in 2005.

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