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Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei has claimed that the 10 current F1 teams all “see the benefit” of renewing the Concorde Agreement early.
The Concorde Agreement is the contract between the sport’s commercial rights holders and the teams, guaranteeing their participation in every round of the championship in exchange for significant sums of prize money.
That is paid out on a sliding scale which has been addressed in recent years to lessen the difference between those at the front and the back of the grid.
It is also the preservation of their slice of that prize money fund that is thought to be at the heart of reluctance among teams to allow entry to a new competitor.
“Historically, the Concorde Agreement was a snot-gobbling fight, and never got signed until after the season had already ended,” Maffei explained at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference in San Francisco.
“They were operating backwards on what they were getting paid.
“We got it done this time, ” he added of the current deal, which teams agreed to in August 2020.
“I credit first Chase Carey and now Stefano [Domenicali], with changing the dynamic with the teams where we are far more aligned.
“That doesn’t mean they want to pay us any more, but they all agree in the value that we’re doing together, and that growing the pie has been a positive thing for everybody.”
A number of figures in the F1 paddock have already expressed their desire to effectively ‘rinse and repeat’ the Concorde Agreement for what will be its ninth iteration since being introduced in 1981.
The current deal expires at the end of 2025, with McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown suggesting an early agreement is preferred.
“I think everything’s working great,” said Brown in May.
“If you look at the health of the sport, from a Liberty point of view, from the 10 racing teams’ point of view, the teams that want to come in, the promoters, the fans, the TV.
“So I’d like to see it get done sooner rather than later, just for the stability and longevity of the sport.
“I also think it’s a little bit of a rinse and repeat. It’s working. I don’t think there’s much to add or change to the existing agreement, so I don’t think it needs to be a prolonged conversation either.
“I’d pretty much be happy with a rinse and repeat, with a few tweaks here and there. There are things in the digital age that have advanced since we did the last agreement that I think need to be discussed.
“But for the most part, it’s a solid agreement. It’s working so we don’t really need to fix what’s not broken.”
Brown has also spoken of the rising value of F1 teams, a point which is inexorably linked to Liberty Media’s success with the sport.
Where once teams were bought and sold for perhaps $200 million, recent share transfers have seen those figures rise into the billions.
Formula 1 has also experienced a boom in its own value.
“But the reality is the team’s valuations have increased much faster,” Maffei said.
“They see the benefit of the regime that we’ve together created, they see the benefit of extending that deal.
“And we’re basically talking about, as an early renewal of a deal that is very similar to, on the terms that they have today.
“Why we think that’s a benefit; I think we [Formula 1] can all sell sponsors, we can sell broadcasters, we can sell all people on the certainty of the sport, and you don’t risk any of the potential the future.
“I think they [the teams] have the opportunity to go out and sell the same sponsors on those ideas.
“So all of that is why everyone sort of wants to extend the current regime and I think we’ve seen good interest on that.”
