12/05/2011
NEWS STORY
Much has been made of the fact that representatives from four F1 teams - Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull - are believed to be meeting this weekend in Stuttgart. As ever in F1, many of the reports, and the conclusions drawn from them, are completely false. Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt is on hand to steer readers to the truth.
The news about the meeting was first reported by the Telegraph's F1 sports reporter Tom Cary which made no mention of the idea that the four teams would be meeting with representatives of News Corp to discuss its phantom bid for F1. However, this didn't stop further outlets from wrongly suggesting that the whole point of the meeting is for the teams to meet the media company about its alleged interest in buying F1.
What's more, other reports have implied that it is inappropriate for the four teams to meet without the other members of the F1 Teams Association (FOTA). According to this theory, the four teams could be planning to do a joint deal with F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone to give them an increased share of F1's spoils when the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of 2012. However, anyone with a good knowledge of the Concorde Agreement will know that it prevents both the teams and Ecclestone from doing this.
Under clause 4.8 of the Concorde Agreement, Ecclestone's business "agrees and undertakes that it shall not... make an offer prior to 31 December 2011 to any Team in respect of that Team's participation in the FIA F1 Championship after 31 December 2012 unless it makes an offer to all of the Teams on terms which are the same in all material respects." In short, any offer Ecclestone makes to the four teams would have to be made to the other eight teams with exactly the same terms.
The clause continues to state that Ecclestone's business "shall not prior to 31 December 2012... confer on any Team any material preferential right, benefit or privilege or discriminate against any other Team or subject it to more onerous material obligations than any other Team." So, Ecclestone cannot pull the same trick he used in 2005 when he gave Ferrari $100m to pull out of one of the many threatened rival series it has been involved with.
It makes not just this weekend's meeting, but any meeting the teams have about the Concorde negotiations a bit of a non-event because you can be sure of one thing: whatever deal is finally agreed on will for once have the same terms for everyone.