New concord agreement

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Seems the dastardly dwarf has pulled yet another coup.

AMuS is reporting that Red Bull and Ferrari's defection from FOTA was not over technicalities only, but fuelled by more cash by signing up to the 2013 concorde agreement early(2 months ago allegedly).

Its being reported as a private agreement...

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/f1-news-2012-es-rumort-hinter-den-kulissen-4232650.html

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/concorde-abkommen-spezialservice-fuer-ferrari-und-red-bull-4196361.html

[WhiteBlue]

I doubt that there is a full agreement and anything in writing. Reportedly all parties signed up not to negotiate before the end of 2011. Ecclestone is too clever to break such an agreement. He may have had a verbal understanding along the main lines with the two teams.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Ecclestone will have promised both parties something in return for being on the grid in 2013.
He has done it before and he will do it again.

[Mysticf1]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/18/bernie-ecclestone-f1-flotation-asia?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Ferrari would have a representative on the board in Luca di Montezemolo, the team's president. One would also be allotted to Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire founder of Red Bull and a friend of Ecclestone. But there would be no seats for McLaren, one of the sport's most successful teams, or Mercedes which has invested huge amounts in F1.

Is it a coincidence Ferrari and Redbull left FOTA? Bernie up to his old tricks.

[ScottB]

A seat for a team that has been around for 5 minutes while ignoring Mclaren, Mercedes, Renault et all?

I can accept Ferrari having something of a special status, but if I was FOTA I'd be headed off to pastures new and leave Bernie with his worthless Ferrari v Red Bull show...

[Pierce89]

Fota wouldn't dream of leaving without Ferrari and Red Bull

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Fota wouldn't dream of leaving without Ferrari and Red Bull

Ferrari yes, Red Bull no.

No way is Red Bull a long haul team like McLaren or Ferrari. It's a joke that they have dispensation whereas other teams dont.

[munudeges]

No team should be getting any preferential treatment regardless of who they are. It's the usual divide and conquer from Bernie.

This year is likely to be a bit stinky on the political front.

[thearmofbarlow]

Fota wouldn't dream of leaving without Ferrari and Red Bull

Ferrari yes, Red Bull no.

No way is Red Bull a long haul team like McLaren or Ferrari. It's a joke that they have dispensation whereas other teams dont.

Only time will tell. So far they're only one of seven constructors since the early 80's to win a title. They're excruciatingly moneyed and given their breadth and depth of sponsorship it's obvious they plan on being involved in sport for quite some time. When even a traditional powerhouse like Williams can struggle there will obviously be fluctuations, but given that they're one of three teams that actually have significant money to work with... I can see why Bernie would like them so much.

[WhiteBlue]

More details:
http://skiddmark.com/2012/03/ferrari-and-red-bull-line-up-to-join-the-board-of-f1-as-goldman-sachs-prepare-for-stock-market-listing/
A pretty shrewd move by Bernie and CVC although not something that one would ideally want to see.

Typically the preferential treatment would be reserved to Ferrari and that would have had the weakness of leaving at least three power teams in opposition. By extending this attempt at splitting the teams to the currently undisputed top team Red Bull half the strength of marketing is taken from FOTA. McLaren and Mercedes are teams with significant automotive competitive issues and not likely to devote much time of their parent or top organizations to break away strategies.
Giving both Ferrari and Red Bull preferential income and a board seat in commercial issues will give Bernie's strategy a big push.

FOTA's counter proposal would be a relatively severe budget cap that would see the FiA control the auditing and set punitive measures for violations. It will be interesting to see what the conditions for this would be and how quickly this plan can be executed. If it is done in a water tight and rigorous fashion the budget cap could invalidate the commercial strategy of CVC. If all teams are forced to play on a level playing field the commercial advantages will simply ensure that the teams parent companies will become richer, but it will not translate into sporting advantages.

As always in the past it looks like Bernie is in control of the process and is pushing the agenda. Ron Dennis and Norbert Haug with the rest of the team principals need to push the boost button on their game console to close the gap. Let's wait and see how this plays out.

[thearmofbarlow]

This may be what finally kickstarts the long-threatened breakaway. Why the hell would you continue to do business in a situation that is explicitly controlled by your rivals?

[raymondu999]

Because then victory tastes so much sweeter

[wunderkind]

I hope the FOTA teams would finally throw their hands up and say Goodbye to Bernie, Ferrari, and Red Bull. Whatever the new F1 regime maybe, Ferrari and Red Bull will become the senior partners while the FOTA teams would become junior partners with an unequal share of income and say in the governance of F1.

I think if Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, Renault, and other teams could maintain their stance and come up with a credible and workable championship idea, then there might be a chance for a breakaway championship. Many European circuits and race promoters are unhappy with Bernie and that might present an opportunity. To boost its chances, FOTA must also rope in a few other car manufacturers such as VAG, Toyota, and Honda to join in. It can begin with 10 races in Europe, two races in Asia (one in Australia - Melbourne or Adelaide and one in Japan - the Fuji speedway) and one in the North America and one in South America. I'd love to see F1 racing on the legacy European circuits again.

I believe a 14-race championship that broadcasts to the global free-to-air TV audience that is cost-effective might just be what we need. No bullshxt, just good racing and a good way for car manufacturers to promote their brands to the global audience.

Many of you have opined that "What is F1 without Ferrari?". But what is Ferrari without a proper F1 championship with serious competitors such as McLaren, Mercedes, Renault, and Williams?

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17432432

Christian Horner:

Red Bull aren't in favour of frivolous spending, and we're as keen as anyone to control costs in F1. I don't believe the RRA is the right or effective route. [It's also not] one the FIA should really get involved in, because it's fraught with complications. Our feeling is the most effective way to control costs is through the technical regulations. Controlling tangible things like the amount of people we have at a grand prix, the amount of engines, gearboxes, the amount of testing we can do, are clear and transparent ways to control costs. Red Bull aren't in favour of frivolous spending, and we're as keen as anyone to control costs in F1, but to try to do it through equivalence as the RRA is constructed is fraught with problems. [The customer car] eradicates your R&D costs and you effectively would acquire a rolling chassis or the basis of a chassis, which would be an awful lot more competitive than where some of those teams are.

It is quite obvious that Horner wants to keep the opportunity to use the additional money he is set to get from Ecclestone to improve Red Bulls competitiveness. That is the same strategy Ferrari are pursuing. IMO it would be much better to control the budget as the FiA have prosed together with the team experts since 2008. We would not have thousands of rules that narrow the field of engineering and produce spec cars in the end.

Ross Brawn:

[The teams wanted to] look at fair ways of introducing regulations or procedures to keep the costs under control and further reduce costs.

Considering that Red Bull and Ferrari will be able to tweak the commercial conditions in their favour that is urgently needed.

[Trocola]

That's more of the same: Ferrari has always got an special treatment from Bernie. They get more money than other teams, regardless his championship position. Red Bull is following Ferrari's steps. They would expend all the money they want while others teams need to limitate expending

And this is the reason why they left FOTA. They would get more money from Bernie Corleone and would have an active position in new technical regulations

If Ferrari and Red Bull get finally to this position, the other teams should left F1. One thing is believe that you have no vote and the other is see that, actually, you have no vote and power of decision


Trocola