Mercedes ready to ‘move forward’ and sign F1 Concorde Agreement

Mercedes is now ready to “move forward” and sign Formula 1’s new Concorde Agreement, according to team boss Toto Wolff.

The world championship-winning squad reached an impasse with F1 in negotiations to stay in the sport after the 2020 season, with Wolff stressing at last weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix that Mercedes was “the biggest victim” of the terms being discussed.

Despite originally insisting that it would not face further delays with the agreement, F1 has since pushed back the initial deadline of August 12 to August 18. 

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Wolff said that Mercedes has changed its stance after making progress since the last race at Silverstone.

"I've been pretty vocal after the meetings that we had within the team, to say this is what we need and these are the clarifications we need in order to move forward," Wolff said.

"But I've changed my opinion in Silverstone. I don't think that the teams will ever be united. Everybody tries to achieve some little deals outside everybody. There's a blame culture in the media.

"So we have decided to move forward with Liberty. I've had some very constructive discussions with Chase [Carey] over the last weekend, and most of the clarifications that we wanted to achieve have been discussed.

"I feel were are at a good point to sign the Concorde Agreement and move on.”

A number of teams including F1’s three longest serving outfits, Ferrari, McLaren and Williams, all previously said they are ready to sign the new terms that will determine the direction of the sport between 2021-2025.

Wolff had expressed frustration at teams being unwilling to air their concerns with the new Concorde Agreement publicly, saying they were “up the arse” of F1’s commercial rights holder, Liberty Media.

"What frustrated me was that we as the teams are not capable of really joining up in order to have a common standpoint," Wolff explained.

"Not in a way that goes against Liberty or FOM, not at all, but we're having these meetings and everybody seems to be interested in the same clarifications, and in the same kind of mark-up for contracts that are necessary.

"Then we leave the meetings, and on air, I hear opinions that differ very much from what was said within the meeting. That is a certain frustration, I don't know why that happens.

"I have clarified my position very clearly with the ones that I think pick up the phone immediately once the meeting is finished.

"I have come to a point that if we are not capable of us as the teams to have a joint standpoint for the benefits of the teams, then we'll have to go back and have our own."