ESPNF1:
Bernie Ecclestone says the next Concorde Agreement has been agreed upon by all the teams and that he is just waiting on lawyers to finalise it.
The Concorde Agreement binds the teams, the FIA and the sport's commercial rights holders together and the current version is set to expire at the end of the year. Negotiations over a new Agreement have been taking place behind the scenes at several races this year, with only Mercedes thought to be holding back.
However, Ecclestone told the Daily Mail this week that he has "Total agreement" on the new deal, adding: "We are just talking to the lawyers -'why have you used this word, that word'. Typical lawyers but everything's fine. Commercially it's done."
One of the reasons for F1's hesitancy to go ahead with a planned float on the Singapore stock exchange has been attributed to a lack of Concorde Agreement, but Ecclestone says he is ready to "push the button" on a flotation "when the markets are right".
Talking about the future of the sport, Ecclestone said the next step was to allow the leading teams to have greater control over future technical regulations. They currently have an input in the formulation of rules via the Technical Working Group and Formula One Commission, but ultimately the process is signed off by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council.
"Now what we've got to do is look at how the technical regulations are made," Ecclestone added. "It should be the teams, though not all the teams, who do that. They are the people who have to come up with the money, not the FIA. It would be the established teams who are here to stay - Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and probably Williams as old timers - deciding what to do."
Williams as old timers - look who's talking
