Formula 1 commercial manager Bernie Ecclestone has suggested the future technical rules should be set by the leading teams, as he moves closer finalizing a new Concorde Agreement.
Although the current regulations are laid down after a strict process that involves the FIA's Technical Working Group, the Formula 1 Commission and the World Motor Sport Council, Ecclestone reckons that a new process could be agreed in the future. In an interview with British newspaper The Daily Mail, Ecclestone made it clear that all teams – including Mercedes, which had been holding out for improved commercial terms – were now on board with the new Concorde.
"Total agreement," said Ecclestone. "We are just talking to the lawyers – 'Why have you used this word, that word?' Typical lawyers, but everything's fine. Commercially it's done."
Speaking about the way rules could be framed going forward, he said: "Now what we've got to do is look at how the technical regulations are made. It should be the teams, though not all the teams, who do that.
"They are the people who have to come up with the money, not the FIA. It would be the established teams who are here to stay – Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and probably Williams as old timers – deciding what to do."