Paddy McNally

McNally was born in Gravesend on December 20, 1937.[2] He was the son of Captain Patrick McNally, an Irish Blueshirts officer, and his English wife Mary Outred.

McNally is of Irish background, originally from County Donegal, Ireland.[3][4][5]

McNally started his career as a motorsports journalist in the 1960s,[5] contributing to Autosport magazine in London.[6] He later moved to Switzerland and began working as a sponsorship consultant for Marlboro and as a driver manager for James Hunt. McNally raced himself for one season in 1968 in a Porsche 911 T/R.[7][8]

In the early 1970s, McNally came into contact with Bernie Ecclestone, the 'F1 Supremo', and founded Allsport Management, a company which provided corporate hospitality and reformed trackside advertising for Formula One events.[9] He worked closely with Ecclestone and together they are credited for building the foundations of modern Formula One.[6] Based in Geneva, Allsport owned the lucrative advertising rights at Formula One circuits and operated The Paddock Club, the luxury hospitality provider.[7]

McNally had developed a system of signage which gave advertisers maximum exposure. He stated that he had formed a solution to "tidy up" trackside advertising with a strategy called "themed advertising", whereby one advertiser is given full exposure at each section of the course. This strategy proved very successful. McNally ultimately took over the sales of all Formula One trackside advertising, with the exception of the Monaco Grand Prix.[7][10]

In 2006, McNally sold Allsport Management to CVC Capital Partners for $334 million.[5] In 2011, he announced his retirement from the Formula One circuit.[11][12]

McNally was married to Anne Downing, daughter of racing driver Ken Downing with whom he had two sons, Sean and Rollo, before her death in 1980.[13][14] He has homes in the Côte d'Azur and Switzerland, most notably in Verbier where his chalets are locally referred to as "the Castle", or occasionally, "Cocaine Castle".[9][14][15][16] He has also kept a Sunseeker yacht in Saint-Tropez.[5]

McNally dated Sarah Ferguson throughout the 1980s before her marriage to Prince Andrew, Duke of York. The pair remain close friends.[17][18][16] He is currently with his former cook Sarah Tyzack, who is nearly thirty years his junior.

McNally owns Warneford Place, Wiltshire, the former home of Ian Fleming. In 2004, the property was raided by the Johnson Gang.[19] In addition to Warneford, his principal residence, McNally owns Buckland House, Oxfordshire.[20]

After retirement, McNally has indulged in a lavish lifestyle and is an avid partaker of skiing in Switzerland and shooting at his estate in Wiltshire. He formerly owned Glenlochy Moor, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.[21][22]