F1 Team Bosses Form New Body

The principals of the 10 F1 teams have formed a new representative body – the Formula One Teams Association – which will negotiate with the sport’s rights holders on behalf of the teams.

The 10 team principals agreed to establish the Formula One Teams Association at a meeting at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello and will look to work with the sport’s governing body the FIA and supreme Bernie Ecclestone on future structure for the sport.

F1 is running without a Concorde Agreement, which agrees the terms by which the teams race and share revenue and it is hoped the new body will pave the way for a new agreement being reached.

The last Concorde Agreement was agreed in 1981 but expired at the end of 2007 as the teams and FIA president Max Mosley failed to thrash out a deal.

The old Concorde Agreement gave the teams a central role in the rule-making process but now the FIA has absolute power over the rules.

The new body should ease the way for teams to safeguard their interests as the sport moves forward.

The formation of the new body comes as the FIA prepare to implement changes to F1 in 2009.

Part of those changes will see a reduction in aerodynamic development and the phased introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). This technology will channel energy generated under braking into batteries that can then be used to power the cars.

The FIA is also keen to press on with his plan to decrease team budgets by 50% and to make the sport greener. The governing body hopes to implement these measures in three years’ time with a further aim of cutting fuel consumption in half by 2015.