Formula One news

Ecclestone clarifies comments over 'owed money'

Bernie Ecclestone has denied owing teams any money, following his comments last week which stated that Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatore - of McLaren and Renault respectively - had suggested not taking their cars to Melbourne until the F1 supremo had covered payments for the two outfits.

The situation, also involving Toyota head John Howett, appeared to be resolved quickly as the cars of the teams involved arrived at Albert Park soon after Ecclestone's comments were first made public. "Formula One Administration Limited (FOA), the commercial rights holder of Formula One, wishes to clarify and correct inaccurate and misleading statements made to the media yesterday by the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA)," Ecclestone said in a statement. "In particular, FOTA claimed that monies are owed by CVC (FOA's controlling shareholder) to the teams for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 championship seasons. Neither CVC nor FOA owes any amount to any team."

It went on to explain that the payments mentioned by the parties, which supposedly all fell under the last Concorde agreement in 2007, were all paid when due and that new contracts have since been drawn up between FOA and the teams; they state that the teams have agreed to take part in the championship for a given period of time, and will be awarded payments - such as any prize monies - annually, which will be calculated in relation to FOA's profits during the given year.

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