Formula One teams said progress is made towards ending the sport’s internal turmoil but warned the FIA a breakaway championship remained an option.
“We still don’t have an agreement although I would say we are making progress, slowly but steadily. But we cannot sit back and wait,” BMW-Sauber’s Mario Theissen said at the German Grand Prix.
“We have to keep all options open, and that means we have to look at the other course as well.”
Toyota motorsport president John Howett, FOTA’s vice-chairman, said the breakaway threat remained alive.
“I don’t think we’ve ever taken it away. We’ve just put it on the backburner,” he added.
The teams were responding to a statement by the FIA that a new commercial agreement to end the threat of a rival series could be ready within days.
“At present, it seems probable that a final draft of the 2009 Concorde Agreement will be agreed and ready for signature in the coming days,” the FIA had said. Yahoo! Eurosport
Behind the scenes, it is understood the eight member teams of FOTA are refusing to sign a new Concorde Agreement - the confidential document that governs the commercial side of the sport - unless they have cast-iron assurances Mosley will not stand again for the presidency.
In an FIA statement with the headline ‘Setting The Record Straight’ after FOTA yesterday stated the future of F1 was again “in jeopardy”, the governing body have claimed the signing of the Concorde Agreement could be done “in the coming days.”
That was dismissed as “over-optimistic” by Theissen, with the whole 700-word draft seemingly viewed as little more than FIA propaganda. The Press Association
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