I'm bumping this thread because I've found some interesting stuff. Firstly,
from Joe's Award:
I am hearing that Bernie Ecclestone is planning to try to negotiate an increase in the number of races on the calendar in the next agreement [...] he can have up to 20 races, but must still allow for a 12 week break.
At the moment the maximum number of races allowed is 20, but the CRH (Commercial Rights Holder) must include six events from a list of 12 countries. The list of these protected entities is believed to include Abu Dhabi/Bahrain, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom.
In addition team consent is required if there are more than 17 races and at least half the races must be held in Europe and the United States.
From what I am hearing the plan is to increase the basic number of races to 20 and allow for another possible four.
And secondly, this article about
McLaren being offered a share of the sport. It's written by Christian Sylt, who has a pretty poor reputation, I'll admit, but he does seem to know something about the business side of things. The gist of the article is that McLaren have now been offered a share in the sport if and when it gets floated on the Singapore stock exchange later this year. This means that Bernie will have the agreement of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, the three biggest teams in the sport, which will make negotiations easier. It also implies that in order to secure McLaren's support, Bernie had to agree to hold the Bahrain Grand Prix, because McLaren is partially-owned by the Bahraini royal family.
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My theory in all of this is that Bernie is trying to change the historical multiplier. When teams are paid from the television rights at the end of the year, the money is awarded based on their championship position and their historical presence on the grid. This historical presence is taken from 1950. It was supposed to reward teams who stay in the sport for years, but it's created a rather unusual situation. Ferrari, McLaren and Williams are the only teams who really benefit from it, since they've been in the sport for three decades. But it's been fifteen years since either of them won a World Constructors' Championship, and McLaren have only won one Drivers' Championship (2008). So they're really just getting paid to show up.
I think Bernie is trying to reset the historical multiplier, taking it from 2000 rather than 1950. This would explain why he made that deal with Ferrari and Red Bull before anyone else - of the four teams to win Constructors' titles in the past twelve years, they are the only two that are still active (as Brawn became Mercedes and Renault became Lotus). McLaren has a Drivers' title, but that would not be worth as much as Constructors' Championships.
By changing the start date of the historical multipler to 2000, the entire structure of the payment system would change. It would reward recent success, and encourage competition, instead of the current system which basically has Williams and McLaren showeing up and getting a cheque. The stumbling block is McLaren. Despite their recent track record, they've been up the front pretty consistently since 2000. Restructing the payment system would mean asking them to willingly give up the rights to tens of millions of dollars (Williams don't really have a choice since they're stuck in the midfield for now). And with the al Khalifa family owning 40% of the team, Bernie would need every owner of McLaren on-board. If the al Khalifas refused, it could slow down the entire process of negotiating a new Concorde because Bernie needs McLaren to win over the other, smaller teams. So I think it's possible that the Bahrain Grand Prix went ahead to secure the support of the al Khalifas within McLaren, and secure McLaren's position within the Concorde Agreement.
