It may seem that Bernie Ecclestone's schemes get stranger the older he gets. Earlier this year he made a bid for failing car company Saab which left analysts scratching their heads. In fact, it wasn't as mad as it seemed since it gave well-timed publicity to Gerard Lopez, his partner in the bid. Lopez had recently bought Renault's F1 team and potential sponsors needed to see he had the wherewithal to keep it going. Being Ecclestone's partner in the bid did just that. Now, writing in the Express, Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt reveals that Ecclestone is going to open a fish and chip shop. It may sound like a madcap idea but, as always, Ecclestone has a plan.

In May last year Ecclestone's eldest daughter, 26 year-old Tamara, paid £1.7 million to buy The Swag and Tails, a pub which her father had been visiting for decades. It is a stone's throw from the penthouse facing Hyde Park where Ecclestone lives with his 30 year-old girlfriend. He religiously visited the pub for lunch whenever he was in London and his regular table faced the door so he could survey the comings and goings.

The pub's typical crowd included smartly-suited bankers and Ecclestone's long-time friend Barry Silver. Motorsport's wealthiest powerbrokers dined there with Ecclestone, as did Sylt himself. The previous landlady Annemaria Boomer became his close friend and when her lease ran out in May Tamara bought the pub in a bid to keep it open. However, local residents soon put the brakes on this and for the last year Ecclestone has had to make do with eating at the café above the Armani store on Brompton road just a few minutes walk from Harrods.

In February, Tamara submitted plans to Westminster City Council to demolish and rebuild the pub in order to treble capacity. She also wants to open seven days a week, compared to the previous five, and also stay open late at weekends. Residents complained on the grounds that it would destroy the tranquillity of the area and in April the Knightsbridge Association sent a letter urging neighbours to lodge protests with the council. However, Ecclestone has come up with a strategy to deal with this and, with a stern stare, he warns neighbours that they "should know what they are taking on."

He adds, "residents are never happy about anything... we will overcome that. We will turn it into a fish and chip shop... it has got permission as a pub and a restaurant so we will have it as a pub and a fish and chip shop and we will get a lot of people coming."

It is perhaps unsurprising that Ecclestone finds it hard to let go of visiting the pub since watering holes have played an important part in the history of F1. In the 1980s when he owned the world championship winning Brabham team Ecclestone held board meetings with Gordon Murray and Herbie Blash over a pint and a sandwich in The Star on Leatherhead Road in Chessington, just down the road from the team's premises.

Reportedly The Star was even the setting for negotiations between John Bannon, the then prime minister of South Australia, and Ecclestone for the first Australian Grand Prix in 1985. If Tamara's plans come off then the future of F1 may well be sketched out on some newspaper after a healthy portion of cod has been consumed.