Major changes for 1997 season

FIA and eight of the eleven F1 teams have signed a revised Concorde agreement, laying out the rules and operations of Formula One from 1997 to 2001. The following provides highlights of this agreement:

* All signing teams commit to participating in the Championship until 2001.

* The teams guarantee at least 20 cars entered each year. Presumably this means third cars shoudl the number of teams entered fall below ten.

* The teams agree not to change names during the duration of the agreement. Note that Tom Walkinshaw's team signed as "Arrows", not "Fottwork" or "TWR".

* The teams agree not to participate in any other open-wheel championships without the approval of FIA. This is clearly intended to prevent teams from running in Indycars as well as F1.

* Changes to technical and/or sporting regulations will require only 80% of the teams' consent, not unanimous as before.

* The maximum number of races per year will be 17, up from 16.

* In a major change, Friday practice is now completely abolished. The Saturday morning practice sessions are extended to 1 hour each, and the practice laps are now no longer limited (qualifying will still be limited to 12 laps). Spare cars are once again permitted for practice and qualifying.

* Two tyre choices will be permitted in practice per car; after practice, the team must choose one of these, and use it for the remainder of the weekend. A maximum of 7 sets of the chosen tire per car may be used.

* No testing anywhere will be permitted in the week before a race, nor between the end of the season and December 1st of that year.

* The top five teams, plus the one with the most experience, will have seats on the Formula One Commission.

* The current prize money scale will be abolished. Instead, the TV and race participation income will be divided first, 50% to all competitiors and 50% to all participating teams, and second, each of those is allotted 50% based on previous season's results and 50% based on "historic results" (no details on this).

The agreement has been signed by Arrows, Benetton, Ferrari, Forti Corse, Jordan, Ligier, Minardi and Sauber. McLaren and Tyrrell have not signed the agreement, and Williams has withdrawn their signature.

Additional teams can join the agreement with the approval of all the current signatories.