SportBusiness.com

Mosley predicts F1 compromise

President of motor racing's ruling body FIA, Max Mosley, says a compromise deal will be struck between Formula One carmakers and rights holders Kirch.

The carmakers had recently threatened to set up a rival company and perhaps split up F1. Kirch recently secured 75 percent of the shares in F1 holding company SLEC. SLEC has paid FIA $313.6m (B354.5m) for the commercial rights to Formula One for the next 100 years.
But Mosley, in an interview with Autosport magazine, believes that splitting the sport up 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.
"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."

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."