F1 hopes to seal early 2026 Concorde Agreement with FIA

F1 commercial rights holder Liberty Media hopes to enjoy a swift round of negotiations with the sport's teams and with the FIA over Grand Prix racing's next Concorde Agreement.

The next all-important covenant that dictates the commercial, financial and governance terms that bind the teams to the sport will come into effect at the start of 2026, at the end of the current contract that started in 2022.

The previous Concorde Agreement negotiations between the various parties were a strenuous affair that lasted over a year and concluded in the summer of 2020 on the eve of the deadline set by the FIA.

Speaking at a recent Liberty media investor conference, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali is confident that the process of ironing out the new provisions will unfold any drama.

"We just signed a new Concorde Agreement and as always we are looking to be very quick," he said.

"I would say the balance of what is on the table is very important for the eco-system. Just if you think back, more than two - less than five teams were asking for loans from Formula 1 to be alive and to survive and to make sure they were participating in the grands prix.

"Today, with the things we have done, the eco-system is very healthy and sustainable financially, and this has given value to our business.

• Read also: Domenicali ‘more than nervous’ over 2022 cost cap results

"That is something that has been recognised by all the teams.

"So at the appropriate time, I think we are going to sit around the table, I think the teams will understand what we wrote for them and we will understand what we believe will be the right strategy to tackle that.

"That could happen sooner or later but we just signed the new one. So we need to prepare that in the best way that we can knowing that the elements we put in place are the right ones."

Formula 1 and the FIA haven't been on the best of terms lately, with friction over the winter impacting the relationship between the sport and the governing body's president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

However, Liberty Media chief executive officer Greg Maffei echoed Domenicali's comments while insisting that it is in all parties' interest to unite and to get the new agreement that will likely run until 2030 across the line.

"Stefano and I were talking about this [the next Concorde Agreement], what we might want and when to go," said Maffei.

"We think it is in everybody's interest, the teams, ours and the FIA's, to solidify the success we collectively have had and show the world we are together moving forward.

"So I don't think this is going to go to the end the way prior ones have done."

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