F1 teams agree to hold fire on Ecclestone agreement

Ferrari's rivals agreed at a meeting yesterday not to rush into a new commercial agreement with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

The nine team bosses also decided to ask the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) to postpone a planned meeting on Friday to discuss major changes to the regulations.

The FIA's suggested measures for 2008, seen by Reuters, included switching to a single tyre supplier and a huge reduction in aerodynamic downforce to up to 10 per cent of current levels.

Telemetry would be eliminated, standard brakes introduced and rpm limits imposed on engines. There would be no spare car and race weekends would be reduced to two days.

Ecclestone said money matters were not discussed at yesterday's meeting. According to one weekend newspaper report, teams would be offered $3 billion of guaranteed revenues over five years in exchange for signing an agreement up to 2012.

Champions Ferrari, already isolated over their refusal to sign up for a 30-day limit on in-season testing, were not invited to yesterday's gathering at a Heathrow airport hotel.

The Italian team distanced themselves from the rest by agreeing unilaterally last week to extend the existing commercial agreement with Ecclestone from 2008 to 2012.

The teams and Ecclestone signed a letter to FIA president Max Mosley saying it would be premature to discuss his latest cost-cutting proposals and outlining their own way forward. They plan to sit down with the FIA after the first three races instead.

"The commercial side and technical side will all be wrapped up together," Ecclestone said. "There's plenty of time to get that done."

The existing Concorde Agreement expires at the end of 2007 and carmakers are still threatening their own rival series from that date.

"We consider that it is vital prior to any far-reaching discussions about the future of our sport that we await the output from the research to be commissioned by the commercial rights holder," the team bosses said in their letter.

They said they wanted to assess first the impact of rule changes for 2005 - such as engines lasting for two grands prix - in the initial races of the year and consult their key stakeholders.