Host of F1 team officials believe the 2021 Concorde Agreement has no red flag to sign but they still want to study in full before firming it.
The 2021 regulations have passed the World Motor Sport Council hurdle, but F1 higher-ups still have their work cut out for them, as the financial and commercial aspect remains to be full-filled, with the all-important Concorde Agreement expiring post the 2020 season.
The document, however, has been drafted, and is under review by the F1 teams, before revisions are made. In this review, most teams have yet to find anything of concern. Ferrari seems to be OK with it as well but their veto power could bring changes.
“The entire Concorde Agreement needs to be discussed and agreed and signed, that’s on the commercial button, the governance as well,” said Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto. “Working group have been set, to start discussing the details of the documents.
“I think it’s only after having seen the details that we may assess where we are and what’s required.” McLaren’s Zak Brown had similar beliefs and is in the same process of review as the Italian outfit but sees no red flags.
“We’re going through it, it’s a long complicated document, no major red flags and we’ve got the necessary people within our group going through it to all contribute to questions, comments that we have so I think like any legal document, there’ll be lots of commentary but we’re pretty comfortable with what’s been presented,” he said.
The other manufacturer in the frame, Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul stated that, while no major overhauls were being discussed, the agreement will take significant time, given the involvement of lawyers, and other factors.
“I hope and believe that the principles of Concorde are more or less in a good place.” he said. “Maybe not everyone will agree with that but I’m talking really about the key principles but clearly we are not dealing with the details. I don’t expect any major re-negotiations of Concorde terms.
“Because that’s something also that’s part of the discussion of the whole package, even though it’s not been signed up so anyone is free to sign or not to sign but clearly I expect that the details of the drafting of the document to take much longer.
“We all know that when one lawyer gets involved so at least we have twelve lawyers. So that’s going to take a bit of time probably to get a grid.” Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost and Williams’ Claire Williams agreed with their F1 counter-parts.
One of the key aspect of the Concorde Agreement is the budget cap of $175 million, which comes into effect from 2021. It is not going to entail everything but it is still significant for the big F1 teams as they need to trim down on their expenditure.
Here’s what the team principals said on F1 2021
Here’s what the drivers said on F1 2021
The full F1 2021 regulations can be downloaded from the FIA site, here.
Here’s the details from the F1 2021 press conference
The story was written by Duncan Leahy and edited by Darshan Chokhani