Liberty waits to make its power play
One subject dominated Formula 1’s political landscape this year and will continue to do so as we head into next season. Since Liberty Media took over as commercial rights holder in January 2017, the focus of the new management has been on 2021 and the unique opportunity to perform a major reset after the expiration of the current Concorde Agreement. With it goes the complex system of governance that has often strangled attempts to promote change.
F1 reached the end of 2019 with the future road map well defined, bar one crucial element. No teams have signed up to a new commercial agreement and there are still question marks over the long-term commitment of some of the power unit manufacturers.
Having said that, there is no specific pressing deadline and indeed the teams have only recently received all the relevant documentation.
“Part of it’s done, really it’s the governance and the prize fund that we haven’t finalised,” F1 CEO Chase Carey noted at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “We’re not putting a deadline out there. I think those sorts of discussions we have in private and we’ll address it.
