Mosley: Deal Between Carmakers and Kirch is Close

Max Mosley, president of motor racing's ruling body FIA, believes there will be compromise deal within the next two years between Formula One carmakers, who are threatening to form a rival series, and rights holders Kirch.

Mosley told Thursday's Autosport magazine that splitting Formula One into two rival tours would not make financial sense.

"In the end everybody understands that one championship is vastly more valuable and interesting than two championships," he said.

"That said, the major manufacturers want a bigger slice of the cake, and I think that in the end there will be a simple calculation that they on the one side, and the Kirch Group on the other, will weigh up what both sides would have if there were two championships," Mosley said.

Last week the carmakers said they were on the point of founding a company to run their own series, which they would start unless they secured agreement with Germany's Kirch group. Kirch recently secured 75 percent of the shares in Formula One holding company SLEC. SLEC has paid FIA $313.6 million for the commercial rights to Formula One for the next 100 years.

"A big championship is so much more valuable than a small championship that it's a relatively straightforward negotiation. I would be surprised if that's not all settled in the next year or two," Mosley said.

"Purely in money terms, there is so much more available from a single championship that only a very poor negotiator would fail to get more than the total value of the two championships. And as both sets of negotiators are quite competent, there's bound to be a compromise."

The magazine also quoted Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw, one of three team principals representing the teams, as saying:

"There is a lot of work going on to get a deal thrashed out, but I think the timing will be in the next two to three months. We've been working on this for months and the meetings with Kirch have been very constructive."