NOVEMBER 15, 2006

A positive moment for the sport

The FIA and the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association have agreed a deal over how the sport should be run. The deal, which was struck at a meeting in Munich, is yet to be put on paper but a document is planned and should cover the next five years. There is a commercial deal in place between the teams and the commercial rights holder of the sport and thus the only outstanding issue between those involved is whether or not there will be a new Concorde Agreement. Some of the teams say that they want a legal structure for the long term and that they cannot be held to agreements without any detail and so that is the next step in the process. The deal today, if confirmed, will however mean that the threat of a breakaway series - which has been unrealistic for some time now - is finally over and the sport can start to get on with sorting out how to maintain its business and grow in the future.

The parties involved described the deal as "a major breakthrough" and added that objectives for the future had been defined, including the relevance of the technology for road vehicles, the costs and the social relevance and then we defined the rules," they added. The decisions over the rules will be made in the future by the FIA and the manufacturers and while this bypasses most of the team owners it is worth noting that these days most of the serious teams are manufacturer owned, leaving very few independent teams. This will not go down well with the smaller operations in F1 but there is little they can do about it.

The FIA now wants to give F1 more relevance to the industry with new technologies.