New F1 Concorde Agreement deadline extended amid Mercedes concerns

The deadline to sign the new Concorde Agreement that will formally define the direction of Formula 1 over the coming years has been pushed back following objections raised by at least the Mercedes team.

August 12 was originally defined as the date teams could sign up to the new agreement, together with the incentive of a bonus if they did so. However, after concerns were put forward, the deadline was pushed bac to August 18.

Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have already said they are willing to sign the new agreement – which commits them to F1 for 2021-2025 – but Mercedes says it is not yet prepared to do so until talks take place. The final deadline teams must sign up remains the end of August.

Over the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff revealed it won’t sign the new agreement for now because it feels it is ‘the biggest victim’ from the proposed changes.

“We from Mercedes, we made very clear that we are happy with a more equitable split of the prize fund," Wolff said, speaking last week. "The way success is rewarded and possible for everybody, we agree to.

"We are, I would say, the biggest victim in terms of prize fund loss in all of that. Ferrari has maintained an advantageous position. With Red Bull, it obviously balances out with AlphaTauri. So it's us that are hurt the most.

"I feel that Mercedes has contributed to the sport over the last years. We have apart from being competitive on-track, we have the driver that has clearly the most global appeal.

"We feel that whilst being in those negotiations, we weren't treated in the way we should have been. Therefore there is a bunch of open topics for us that are legal, commercial, and sporting.

"In our point of view, I don't feel ready to sign a Concorde Agreement.”