Munich prosecutors on Friday delayed setting a date for Bernie Ecclestone’s bribery trial until next year.
“The judges did not want to put themselves under pressure by making a decision that was too hasty,” Margarete Noetzel, spokesperson for the Munich state court, told news agency SID, a subsidiary of AFP.
The 82-year-old Ecclestone could face a prison sentence after being charged by Munich prosecutors in July in relation to a $44 million (33.6 million euro, £29 million) payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky which was linked to the sale.
Last month, Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Ecclestone has always denied bribing the German to avoid a British tax inquiry into the sale of F1, claiming he was blackmailed by Gribkowsky.
“I paid because he threatened to go to the Inland Revenue,” Ecclestone said at the time.