All F1 Teams Sign New Concorde Agreement
All 10 Formula One teams have signed the sport’s new Concorde Agreement, committing them to the championship from 2021 to 2025.
The teams originally had until the end of August to sign the deal, with a financial bonus for those who signed by Tuesday. However, both deadlines had been pushed back after Mercedes led for calls to revise the deal.
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This didn’t lead anywhere after the sport’s heritage teams — Ferrari, Williams and McLaren — openly showed their willingness to sign during the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, and were indeed the first to so. The remaining teams followed suit, including Mercedes.
“Over its seventy year history, Formula 1 has developed at a remarkable rate, pushing the boundaries of safety, technology and competition to the absolute limits, and today confirms that an exciting new chapter in that history is about to begin,” added Jean Todt, President of the FIA.
Since 1981, the Concorde Agreement is a contract between F1’s three main bodies: the FIA, the organization that dictates the technical and sporting regulations for many motorsports including F1; the Formula One Group, currently owned by Liberty Media, which promotes the sport and exercises its commercial rights; and the F1 teams.
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The document specifies in detail how the sport must be run and organized, the team’s contractual obligations, and how revenue must be shared between the teams and management. Before its creation, TV contracts were risky and not very lucrative. Thus its primary purpose is to increase the commercial success of F1 and lock the teams into participating in the sport.
In exchange, the teams get a cut of the sport’s commercial revenue, but the distribution of this money has not always been fair. This latest contract — the eighth since 1981 — aims to change that. “The new Concorde Agreement, in conjunction with the regulations for 2022, will put in place the foundations to make this a reality and create an environment that is both financially fairer and closes the gaps between teams on the race track,” said Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO of Liberty Media.
The details of the Concorde Agreement are generally secret, so it’s unlikely we’ll learn the contents of the deal. Still, the fourth Concorde Agreement was leaked in 2005. We may have something to write about before the end of the decade!
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.