`We are very close to finalising with Bernie`
Flavio Briatore said today that the manufacturer-backed teams are close to agreeing a deal that will commit them to the sport from 2008 onwards.
Briatore is team principal of world champions Renault, one of only five manufacturer-backed teams - not to have reached common ground with the sport`s commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone over the future of the series.

The threat of a breakaway series to rival Formula One has subsided in recent months after Ecclestone and the Grand Prix Manufacturers` Association (GPMA) indicated that all parties may soon come to an agreement.

The Concorde Agreement, the document by which Formula One is governed, expires at the end of 2007 but Briatore says that the sport`s future could soon be finalised.

"I think we are very close to finalising with Bernie," said Briatore. "Maybe it can happen in the next few weeks. We are very much agreed."

The GPMA have long-since demanded a greater share of the substantial revenue generated by Formula One, but the threat of a breakaway series from 2008, is receding.

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, who has been one of the main activists in the GPMA since previously staunch opponent Frank Williams signed his team up to the new deal, said: "It is very important to understand that this is the future of Grand Prix Racing until at least 2012 and maybe beyond. I think the discussions that have taken place in the last month really are in those that will determine where we push in manner of the long-term interest of F1."

"Now, it`s much more of a common interest in terms of how that document is sustained in the long term. I will say more than a day but less than a month away, but it will happen in that period of time."

The other teams who have yet to sign are Toyota, Honda and BMW Sauber. BMW Sauber`s motorsport team boss Mario Theissen has previously indicated however that the German manufacturer is also close to finalising a deal.

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