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Jailed F1 banker Gribkowsky set to leave prison

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Gerhard Gribkowsky - a former chairman of F1's previous holding company who was jailed for accepting bribes - is set to leave prison in early March.

The German banker has been in prison for over five years having been convicted of bribery and tax evasion. The case surrounding Gribkowsky involved F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, with the former chairman of BayernLB being sentenced to eight and a half years for payments linked to the sale of F1 to current owners CVC back in 2005.

With Gribkowsky jailed, Ecclestone also faced trial in 2014 for his part in payments of $44million (£28m) which he claimed were made as a result of the German threatening to report Ecclestone to the British tax authorities.

Ecclestone managed to settle the matter with a $100m (£60m) payment to the Munich court, with such a settlement in the German legal system implying neither guilt nor innocence.

According to Welt am Sonntag, a Munich District Court spokeswoman has confirmed Gribkowsky will be released on probation on March 3.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.