The move would be part of a shake-up of Formula One’s commercial structure
that could hand Ferrari a direct stake in the sport.
Double world champions Red Bull also stand to make a huge sum from the new
financial framework, it is claimed, with both Red Bull and Ferrari allowed
to appoint a director to the board of the sport’s holding company.
The Sky News story, published on Saturday evening, suggested that Ferrari and
Red Bull — both of whom quit the Formula One Teams Association last winter
in a move which seemed at the time to be suspiciously coincidental — had
already agreed in principle to sign up to the new deal.
To add to the intrigue, however, the story was removed from Sky News’ website
after only a couple of hours, leading to a number of questions. Who leaked
the document? Who ordered it to be taken down?
And was what it contained genuine?
Telegraph Sport understands that the document quoted was indeed
genuine, being an unsigned version of a new Concorde Agreement which would
run from 2013 until 2020.
As for who leaked it, there were a number of theories being proposed in the
paddock yesterday following a morning meeting of the remaining members of
the Formula One Teams Association.
Some felt Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive, was trying to put
pressure on other key players in FOTA – specifically, McLaren, Mercedes and
Lotus – to follow Ferrari
and Red
Bull’s lead and sign the agreement.
Others felt it was leaked in an attempt to scupper the deal, showing Ferrari
and Red Bull in a bad light as money-driven and out for themselves.
There was certainly plenty of anger around — some of the smaller teams were
particularly nervous about the proposal to allow new entrants to use cars
deployed by other constructors during the previous season – although there
are question marks over how serious the proposal is to give Ferrari a
shareholding since it could break various European laws regarding governance
and competition.
It is believed the story was removed either at the request of Sky Sports, Sky
News’ sister company who did not wish to spark resentment on the opening
weekend of its live coverage of the sport.
Sky Sports’ parent company BSkyB also owns Sky News, or at the request of
Ecclestone himself.
Following Sunday’s race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed
that his team were “in discussions with FOM” about a new Concorde Agreement
and that talks were “progressing reasonably well”.