Teams turned down the opportunity of a 10% commercial income increase because it would have meant committing to the sport for the next three years.

A report in the Financial Times said that F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, concerned after the departures of carmakers Honda, BMW and Toyota, offered to increase the teams’ 50% share of the sport’s profits in return for their signatures on a new document.

The agreement, separate to the commitments of the Concorde Agreement, would have bound the teams’ actual owners - rather than merely the separate teams that can be liquidated - to F1 until the end of 2012.

F1’s carmaker exodus leaves Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Renault as the only manufacturers on the grid.

Ecclestone was thought to have been looking into whether Toyota could be pursued for breaking the Concorde Agreement, but when asked if he could stop others from leaving, answered : « You can’t. »

« The manufacturers won’t commit, » he said, adding that they « don’t know what they’re going to do next week » and don’t want to allocate in advance the necessary money.

Source : GMM
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