Ferrari accept British GP deal

Although F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone agreed a commercial deal with nine of the sport's 10 teams for the extra two races at a team principals' meeting on Tuesday, the fate of the Silverstone and Magny-Cours events still hung on the FIA agreeing to help supply its facilities free of charge for the races and Ferrari giving a green light to the financial terms accepted by the other teams.

Ecclestone said: "What is important is that we cannot do this without Ferrari agreeing. The FIA has said that perhaps its costs will go up, which I am sure they will by doing two more races, but we want them to make a contribution by not charging for those extra races.

"Formula One Management (Ecclestone's company) is making a big sacrifice and the teams are making an enormous sacrifice - so everybody is giving a bit to keep a bloody good world championship."

The FIA approval for the events, which would be needed for the races to figure on the official world championship calendar, appears to be a formality - with a final decision on the 2005 schedule due to be made at a meeting of its World Council in Monaco on December 10.

An FIA spokesman told autosport.com: "We have always been keen to secure the British and French Grands Prix on the calendar as long as the terms were acceptable to the other stakeholders of F1."

Although Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt is currently away on holiday, which is why he missed Tuesday's meeting, sources close to the team indicated that the team would also not stand in the way of the deal. The source said: "The team has always said that if there was unanimous agreement over 19 races then it would support it."

The team has not yet made any official comment about the situation, however.

Earlier on Wednesday, BRDC chief executive Alex Hooton said that there would be no problem to Silverstone agreeing a deal with Ecclestone - despite the previous doubts surrounding the future of the British GP.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Hooton said: "While we've had contact with team principals since the meeting yesterday (Tuesday), and they have outlined to us a potential deal, we have not yet received anything in writing from FOM. And the devil is quite often in the detail with these sorts of transactions.

"However, it appears that the proposal will relate to a deal for the 2005 Grand Prix in a way that isolates the BRDC from the commercial risk of running the event.

"And if that is the case, it is a transaction that we will do our best to make happen because there seems to have been a real contribution from the teams towards creating this possibility and also a very positive reaction from Mr Ecclestone."