New Concorde Agreement on the 'back burner'

CEO of the Formula One Group Chase Carey says the new Concorde Agreement has been put on the “back burner” for now.

All teams competing in Formula 1 must sign this agreement, and with the current one due to expire at the end of 2020, it means technically Formula 1 has no teams signed up to compete in 2021.

But with the bigger issue that the series’ owner Liberty Media are trying to tackle, Carey confirmed that while a new Concorde Agreement is close, finalising it has been shuffled down the list of priorities.

“We had been in the final stages of completing the Concorde Agreement when the coronavirus crisis turned everything on its head,” Carey said in a call with Wall Street analysts.

“We decided to put the Concorde on the back burner for the short term, and prioritise addressing issues relating to 2020 first.

“As we move forward with the 2020 calendar and finalise regulatory changes with the teams we will once again return to completing the Concorde Agreement in the immediate future.”

Carey did confirm that new terms are not actually needed to ensure the racing goes ahead in 2021, confirming that the rule makers actually “don’t have to extend anything”.

“The reality is once you get to 2021 with the FIA on the Concorde we can just deal with it unilaterally, say these are the rules of the road, or this is the structure that exists, so we don’t have to extend anything,” he explained.

“We can essentially implement and say, ‘If you’re racing, that’s the terms on which you’re racing.’ Obviously that’s not how we’re looking to conclude it with the teams.

“But the Concorde Agreement when we put it forward will be the Concorde Agreement that goes into effect in ’21, and we are able to unilaterally do that.”

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