F1 teams discuss new Concorde Agreement

The politics away from the track in Formula One will always grab the headlines from time to time.

It usually involves teams trying to thrash out a deal for a new Concorde Agreement or in recent times it will involve the Resource Restriction Agreement [RRA].

The latest talks involve both and when eventually agreed, will be used from next season and right through to 2020.

The talks are crucial in regards to how the sport will be governed over the next few years with the FIA putting forward proposals on entry fees, cost control and a new governance structure.

Obviously all the teams will have their own views, depending on which part of the grid they operate from and whether or not they are a manufacturer or a team.

For example Mercedes and Ferrari might want one thing as a team and engine manufacturer, whilst McLaren and Red Bull are likely to want another.

The politics then take centre stage over which teams will compromise first in order for an agreement to be reached.

At the moment, it looks like there is a bit of stalemate going on with a new deal unlikely to be agreed before the end of the current season.

All the Formula One teams, FIA president Jean Todt and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone met in Paris on Monday and talks remain ongoing, no agreements were met, but things according to the FIA at least, appear to be positive.

'All the participants in the meeting were encouraged to seek clarification which resulted in a fruitful and helpful debate on how the new structure would operate in 2013 and beyond,' the FIA said in a statement.

'A further important step has been achieved today to secure the future of the F1 World Championship which should lead to a final settlement to be reached between the FIA, the Commercial Rights Holder and the Teams in the coming weeks.'

However despite the positive statement there are clear divides amongst the teams. Neither Red Bull or Toro Rosso were invited to a recent team principals meeting in Japan.

Red Bull are in disagreement with other teams regarding the regulation of the RRA agreement and in particular a limit on engine spending.

One proposal is for the FIA to regulate the RRA and make sure teams keep to the correct budgets, while Red Bull believe this will simply not work and tighter regulations are required in regards to chassis and engines to lower costs.

'Our view has always been that an RRA isn't an effective way of controlling costs if you only pick on certain elements, You have got areas of exclusion, and you have got different corporate entities that operate the ownership of their teams in different ways.' Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Autosport Magazine.

'What we have always said is that we want something transparent and all-encompassing. Certainly the RRA, the chassis RRA as it has been previously discussed, does not achieve that.

'If it were to include the engine it becomes more interesting. But our principal belief is that stability in the rules is the best way to control costs, because we can see stable rules have allowed many teams and independent teams to be competitive in current F1.

'It is therefore our firm belief that stable technical and sporting regulations are the best way of controlling costs as opposed to a resource restriction that does not treat all parties with parity.'