Ecclestone to offer teams $3 billion

UPDATE Bernie's new scheme will provide 40M a year to each team from 2008 thru 2012….. 5 years…. (40 x 5 = $200M). $200M plus a signing bonus of 35M plus 7 to 9 million bonus to make up for shortfalls occurring before the renewal (200+35+9+ = 48.8M). That is $48.8 MILLION dollars a year to each team guaranteed! Call it $50M a year after all is said and done in that this is his opening offer. The sanctioning body will provide 50M a year to each team guaranteed for 5 years. Then the teams add on their own revenue streams from sponsors, merchandising, partners, etc. Currently, only the winning team receives that much. This offer provides a sum to every team that currently only the winning team enjoys. In Champ Car it may cost 10% of what it takes to run an F1 team but if the sanctioning body would guarantee each team 5 million dollars a year you'd quickly have a very healthy series. Perhaps in five years if the TV ratings are what they should be…… 01/22/05 Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire owner of the commercial rights to Formula 1, will offer the sport's 10 teams $3bn of guaranteed revenues over five years, if they sign up to a new agreement to participate in F1 until 2012. At a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Ecclestone will offer each team a minimum of $40m per season starting from the end of 2007 – the year the current "Concorde" agreement ends – until 2012.

In addition, each team will be offered a signing-on fee of more than $35m plus a further $7m to $9m currently held in an escrow account as a reflection of Ecclestone's view that they should have been given more for the 2004 season.

Currently the teams with the least points at the end of each season receive about $15m. That rises to about $50m for the winner of the Constructors Championship – which goes to the team picking up the most race points over a season. But under the terms of the new Concorde agreement, the most successful team could get more than $100m. The deal will cost Ecclestone about $3bn between 2008 and 2012.

All the teams have been campaigning for a bigger slice of the $900m+ per-year profits generated by F1, the bulk of which currently goes into Ecclestone's own pocket. His improved offer is designed to kill off a rival racing franchise being set up by GPWC – a consortium of F1 manufacturers that includes BMW and Mercedes.

In a highly controversial move last week, Ferrari broke ranks with the other GPWC members and announced that it would sign up to Ecclestone's new Concorde agreement after clinching a $100m signing on fee. Ecclestone believes Ferrari's show of allegiance to his flag will force the other teams to fall into line rather than hold out in the hope of securing a better deal from GPWC.

At Tuesday's meetings the teams will say that they are not happy with what they see as the preferential treatment shown to Ferrari by Ecclestone. Telegraph.co.uk