Christian Horner has disclosed that the "usual discussions" regarding the negotiation of a new Concorde Agreement are currently in progress.
Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder of F1, has recently distributed the draft for the new agreement that unites the teams, the FIA, and Formula 1 itself.
The existing agreement is set to expire next year, and some emerging details suggest a decrease in Ferrari's bonus for historical achievements, and a potential rise in the entry fee for new teams from $200 million to $600 million, affecting potential entrants like Andretti.
The Andretti group, supported by Cadillac (GM), is pushing hard to join the grid by 2026, though the prospects look grim. Mario Andretti, the 1978 world champion, relayed a recent conversation he had with Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei in Miami.
"He said 'Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1'," Andretti reported. "That one really floored me."
"I didn't know it was something so personal."
When questioned whether excluding Michael Andretti's project from Formula 1 could become a negotiation point in the Concorde talks, Christian Horner, the Red Bull principal, acknowledged: "I'm sure it will inevitably be a point of contention."
"But sometimes, if it's not broken, it doesn't need to be fixed," he was quoted by formu1a.uno.
However, the central issue in any Concorde Agreement talks usually revolves around the division of the sport's revenue among the teams.
"It will be the usual discussion - whether the teams want more," Horner stated. "And the promoter wants more. But what we have now works relatively well. I think the basics are all relatively solid."
"As the sport continues to evolve and grow, there will be areas where we can refine the agreement, but I think it's just about refinement, not revolution," he further commented.
Even Toto Wolff of Mercedes, often at odds with Horner, concurs that the fundamental structure of the 2026 agreement is essentially in place.
"I think we have understood the basics of how F1 sees the next five years, and there is some good in that," said Wolff.
"There are a number of things we will discuss - pros and cons - and of course there will be negotiations. But in principle we all want to achieve the same goal - to grow the sport."
"That means profits will also grow and when profits grow, both the teams and the sport benefit." body check tags ::
