Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Recommended for you

Five reasons to watch the Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2026 on Apple TV

Sponsored
Miami GP
Five reasons to watch the Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2026 on Apple TV

What a neuroscientist – and motorsport fan – thinks about Formula 1’s new era

Feature
Formula 1
Miami GP
What a neuroscientist – and motorsport fan – thinks about Formula 1’s new era

Why Albon's track-limits strike in F1 Miami GP sprint qualifying came too late

Formula 1
Miami GP
Why Albon's track-limits strike in F1 Miami GP sprint qualifying came too late

Has Mercedes already met its match? Miami F1's complicated form book explained

Feature
Formula 1
Miami GP
Has Mercedes already met its match? Miami F1's complicated form book explained

Alex Zanardi dies at the age of 59

Formula 1
Alex Zanardi dies at the age of 59

OTD: Hunt disqualified from 1976 F1 Spanish GP

Feature
Formula 1
OTD: Hunt disqualified from 1976 F1 Spanish GP

Verstappen: Red Bull's Miami GP updates have "almost halved" gap to F1 frontrunners

Formula 1
Miami GP
Verstappen: Red Bull's Miami GP updates have "almost halved" gap to F1 frontrunners

Domenicali: F1 is far from finished with US expansion

Formula 1
Miami GP
Domenicali: F1 is far from finished with US expansion

Wolff: Mercedes didn't get all it wanted from F1 Concorde Agreement talks

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says his team did not get all it wanted from Formula 1's Concorde Agreement talks

Wolff had openly spoken out against the way Mercedes had been treated in the discussions over the new Concorde Agreement, as he especially felt the German manufacturer's contribution to F1 had not been recognised.

But despite his clear unease as the negotiations entered the final phase, in the end Mercedes joined all the other teams in committing to F1 for the next five-year period by signing up.

Reflecting on why Mercedes elected to sign despite not being happy, Wolff said that both his team and F1 had to give way for the good of the championship.

"Look, it is a negotiation at the end of the day," Wolff said. "I have great respect for Chase Carey and the complications in dealing with all the stakeholders. Everybody will have a different agenda and different objectives.

"On the other side, why I was outspoken was that I felt that Mercedes' role, particularly in the last seven years, wasn't maybe recognised in the way I would have wished for in terms of the financial split.

"But on the other side, I think he tried hard to create a better show, to balance the prize fund distribution better, and I think he achieved it.

"Obviously I would have wished a better situation for Mercedes but it is what it is. In the final part of the negotiations we agreed on some compromises that found their way into the agreement, and with every negotiation, at the end of the day if both stand up at the table and are not quite satisfied it's probably a good outcome."

Rivals Ferrari did come out of the Concorde discussions satisfied, though, having kept its long-standing veto over rules as well as securing an extra financial payment for its historical significance to the championship.

But team boss Mattia Binotto accepted that the next phase of F1 would be "challenging" for his team as the budget cap is installed.

Speaking about signing up, Binotto said: "I think it's important for the sport, at first, to have stability and to have clear regulations. Plus new regulations for the future, as well on the financial side.

"I think that the budget cap is certainly very challenging for us, but good for the sport and eventually good as well for the economics of Ferrari, looking at the future.

"I think that having a Concorde Agreement where revenues are more balanced between teams, top teams to small teams, is important as well, to make the sport more sustainable from the financial point of view.

"So I think these are all good conditions to look very positive for a stronger sport in the future, and hopefully as well a better show."

Wolff said that ultimately the best outcome from the talks was that nobody felt they completely won with the deal.

"I think we are all having the feeling that maybe we could have achieved more," he said. "But that is maybe an outcome that is good for working together in the future.

"If one party stands up and says, 'I just got the best deal', the other one will feel aggrieved."

Previous article Binotto: Ferrari's F1 Belgian GP woes not just down to engine
Next article Pirelli denies it ignores views of F1 drivers when defining tyre plans

Top Comments

Latest news