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Cape Town - Flavio Briatore has claimed new Formula One owners Liberty Media have treated Bernie Ecclestone badly after throwing a surprise party for the former boss.
As part of the $8billion takeover, Ecclestone was removed from his position as Formula One chief and replaced by Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches as part of a new infrastructure.
And Briatore felt moved to give Ecclestone a proper send-off after being ditched so rapidly by the new owners.
"I organised a 'surprise dinner' in London for the 40 years in Formula 1 of Bernie Ecclestone," said Briatore via an Instagram video.
"The amazing thing is that all the people I invited were present. Normally, if you invite 100 people, you have 60 people who confirm they can attend because you are talking about people that are very busy – or who live many thousands of kilometres away. "But everybody came to London, including Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Salman of Bahrain, Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, Piero Ferrari, David Coulthard, Max Mosley, Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda, and many other people.
"It was a kind of tribute to Bernie's career. He was not treated well by the new Formula 1 bosses. People forget easily what this man has created. It was a bit of a sad evening, but very beautiful."
