Ecclestone Claims F1 Can Get By Without New Concorde Agreement

F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has claimed the organization "can get by without the contract," which has been at the heart of the sport for more than 30 years and commits all the teams to race, according to Caroline Reid of ESPN. The contract, known as the Concorde Agreement, is signed by the teams, motorsports governing body FIA and the F1 Group, which is run by Ecclestone. Ecclestone has spent the past year "trying to negotiate a new contract," to run until the end of '20, but it has still not been signed. Ecclestone said, "We don't need the Concorde Agreement signed. It doesn't matter to me whether we have got the Concorde Agreement or not." Time is running out to get the deal signed by the start of the F1 season in March, but Ecclestone is confident that the racing "will not be disrupted if the contract is not in place." He said that he has "agreed financial terms with each of the 11 teams in separate contracts, which commit them to racing in F1 for the next eight years" (ESPN, 1/26).