'All teams' ready to enter 2013 season - Whitmarsh

Aug.7 (GMM) Despite the current Concorde Agreement uncertainty, all 12 competing F1 teams will almost certainly line up on the 2013 grid.Originally, the FIA imposed a June 30 deadline for teams to apply to contest next year's world championship.Bu...

Despite the current Concorde Agreement uncertainty, all 12 competing F1 teams will almost certainly line up on the 2013 grid.

Originally, the FIA imposed a June 30 deadline for teams to apply to contest next year's world championship.

But that date came and went, shortly after the World Motor Sport Council approved an extension of the deadline to the end of September.

However, it has emerged that all of the teams met the original June 30 entry deadline anyway -- even though some teams, most notably Mercedes, have yet to agree a new 'Concorde' with Bernie Ecclestone.

The FIA also has not signed on with the sport's 81-year-old chief executive, despite Jean Todt saying in mid June that he wanted a new deal to be finalised "in the coming weeks".

"I believe all teams entered (for 2013)," McLaren and FOTA chief Martin Whitmarsh said, "but the FIA has redefined the entry time at the moment, so I presume all of the teams will re-enter within the new time frame.

"The FIA has asked us to resubmit our entries at a later date," he added.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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