Future Looks Bright For Ecclestone’s F1

Formula One’s future has been preserved after commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone claimed the majority of the championship’s teams have reached an agreement to continue racing after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this season.

The confidential Agreement between Ecclestone’s Formula One Management (FOM) and the teams divides up the commercial revenues of the sport, including television rights and prize money. Ecclestone said in a statement: “I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year.”

Only a week after Red Bull Racing and Ferrari said talks over a new Concorde Agreement were progressing well, this latest agreement is sure to dispel any doubts over the future of the sport. It is reported that both Ferrari and Red Bull have now agreed financial terms with Ecclestone, granting the two F1 giants a seat on the Formula One Board.

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh, who is team principal of McLaren, has reiterated the need for F1 team to sick together in order to agree to a deal which benefits all parties. He said: “The majority of the teams are finding an agreement and you can either stick your head in the sand or say let’s find an agreement,” said Whitmarsh when asked about the reasons behind McLaren’s decision to agree a deal. “We’re having constructive dialogue now, which we weren’t having a few weeks ago.” Ferrari and Red Bull last year quit the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in a bid to negotiate their own terms with FOM.

Whitmarsh also mentioned Ecclestone, stating that the smoothening of negotiations will delight the F1 boss: “I think Bernie wants to deliver a positive news message for F1,” he said, according to Autosport. “At the moment the fact that we’re probably not in the middle of a war with each other is good news for Formula One.”

Whitmarsh added: “There are positives clearly, we’ve had two great championships and I think we’ll have another, and that entertainment counts for a lot. We have to try a lot to attack costs in Formula One, but we still have a lot of work to do and I believe we still today have a number of teams here that don’t have a viable long-term business model. We have to continue to work together to make sure we have sustainable business models for the majority of the teams in Formula One.”