Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed the importance of the Concorde Agreement, which has yet to be signed despite months of negotiations.
The document, which binds the teams to the sport, determines how the sport is run and what prize money is divided between them, has been in place since 1981, but expired at the end of the last season.
Ecclestone, the teams and the FIA have been discussing the terms of the new agreement but have yet to agree upon a finalised copy. The 82-year-old however says it isn’t necessary.
“We don’t need the Concorde Agreement signed,” he is quoted as saying. “It doesn’t matter to me whether we have got the Concorde Agreement or not.”
Ecclestone insists the financial terms have been agreed with the teams for the next eight years, but the hold up sits with the FIA, which agrees the technical regulations.
“The Concorde Agreement is really made up of two sections,” he explained. “We have already dealt with the financial section with the teams. It is all done so it is a case of the regulations which change all the time. It’s a case really of how you change the regulations.
“What affects the teams more than anything is the technical regulations. It is the technical regulations which could put them out of business.”
Should the sport be floated on the stock market, such an agreement would be necessary – though plans to do so have been put on hold until the market recovers.
