Mercedes boss Ross Brawn believes that the final hurdle to getting a Concorde Agreement is for the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone to resolve their differences – with him suggesting that the teams are now broadly in line.
After a meeting in Paris on Monday that involved the F1 teams, FIA president Jean Todt and Ecclestone, Brawn said that there was general agreement from the competitors about the situation going forward.
However, Brawn, who attended the meeting with Mercedes advisor Niki Lauda, suggested that a final few matters need sorting out between the sport’s chief, but he saw no reason why a solution could not be found soon.
“From the teams’ perspective there is nothing holding it up,” explained Brawn in India on Thursday.
“It is between the commercial rights holder and the FIA – and that is where they have to sort out their detail and iron out any difficulties.
“It didn’t look there were any major problems. I would imagine it being a very short time.”
With the teams having been given a presentation about the new governance structure, which includes an F1 ‘steering committee’ that was revealed by AUTOSPORT recently, and an explanation of the hike in entry fees, Brawn said that there was no sign of any outfit blocking matters going forward.
“I think there is broad agreement on all the various points, there was no rebellion,” he explained. “The level of the entry fee was discussed, and the reason why it needs to be what it is was discussed.
“In the end there was general consensus on what we are doing. It was a fairly constructive meeting.”
He added: “You will never get everybody to agree on everything but I don’t think there was any massively strong opinion against.”
Lauda’s presence at the meeting was a surprise to many, and prompted suggestions that the former champion was having a bigger hands on role in Mercedes’ affairs than his non-executive chairman role would apply.
Brawn insisted, however, that it was only logical for Lauda to be at this week’s meeting because of the role he played in Concorde Agreement negotiations between Mercedes and Ecclestone.
“Niki had been quite involved with the commercial rights agreement with Bernie, so he came in case any of that got discussed in detail,” explained Brawn, when asked by AUTOSPORT about Lauda’s involvement in the meeting.
“As it happened it didn’t, so Niki was more of an observer than otherwise. But he was really there because he had been closely involved with the commercial right negotiations.”
Loris Kessel Bruce Kessler Nicolas Kiesa Leo Kinnunen Danny Kladis
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