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Lawyers holding up new Concorde Agreement - Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone says legal details are holding up the signing of a new Concorde Agreement, insisting financial terms have been agreed until 2020.
The first four races of the 2013 season have taken place without a Concorde Agreement in place, with Ecclestone agreeing separate commercial deals with all the teams except Marussia until a new contract is signed. The previous Concorde Agreement - the document which binds the teams, the FIA and the commercial rights holder together - expired at the end of last year and Ecclestone says that disagreements between lawyers have prevented it from being re-signed.
"We are doing what we have to do with the Concorde Agreement," he said. "The money side is all agreed. The financial side, for a change, is not a problem. The hold up is generally lawyers. They write something down and the other one says 'I don't think it should be written like that, it should be written like this.' Then the other one says 'I don't know about that.'"
Ecclestone initially blamed the FIA for holding up the signing of the new Concorde Agreement but he says this is no longer the case. "The FIA has been very co-operative. No problems at all."
Later this year the FIA's presidential election will take place and its current president Jean Todt is the only candidate who has come forward so far.
"Todt will get in," Ecclestone said. "He has not caused us any problems. He has been travelling a lot. He has been doing what he should do as a president, looking after all the national sporting authorities. He hasn't put his nose into Formula One which is good."