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In addition to producing a 2014 calendar the World Motor Sport Council has reiterated the significance of the FIA’s agreement with the F1 Group in preparation for the finalising of the Concorde Agreement.

In addition to the obvious financial considerations the deal formalises the new form of governance for the sport.

A statement said: As confirmed earlier today by the FIA and the Formula 1 Group, the framework for the implementation of the 2013 Concorde Agreement has now come into force. This agreement provides the FIA with significantly improved financial means to pursue its regulatory missions and to reflect the enhanced role undertaken by the FIA in motor sport. The parties have agreed a strong and stable sporting governance framework which includes the Formula 1 Group, the FIA and the participating teams. The agreement lays down solid foundations for the further development of the FIA Formula One World Championship.

As revealed here earlier today, Todt has agreed to create a body to deal with the allocation of the extra funding generated by the Concorde Agreement: The members of the WMSC congratulated the FIA President for the successful and favourable conclusion to the negotiations. The members also accepted his proposal to create a new task force, after the FIA Presidential Election, charged with proposing the allocation of the additional financial resources for the FIA and its membership.

The World Council has also addressed the tender process for single suppliers to F1 – confirming that it and not Bernie Ecclestone makes the ultimate call. In this new process, the FIA will be confirmed as the body in charge of conducting the tender process. The Commercial Rights Holder will be entitled to run the commercial negotiations with potential suppliers, with a view to the selected single supplier being officially appointed by the WMSC.

In order to cover the transition period and considering the contracts already settled by FOM and the Teams with Pirelli, the WMSC today confirmed that Pirelli may continue to supply tyres to competitors in the FIA F1 World Championship, subject to the requisite technical and safety standards of the FIA being met.

Ben Sulayem has experience of driving an F1 car, albeit briefly…

Mohammed Ben Sulayem could be set to join forces with David Ward in an attempt depose Jean Todt from the FIA Presidency.

Ben Sulayem had been touted as a third candidate, but a more likely scenario is that he and Ward will eventually team up.

Rally driver Ben Sulayem is President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE, and an FIA Vice President for sport. In June he was appointed as the head of the FIA’s Motor Sport Development Task Force, which is charged with looking at the future of the sport.

In that role he attended FIA regional gatherings in Latin America and Africa last month, which would have been a timely opportunity for him to do some networking. He is also due to present a preliminary report to the World Motor Sport Council today. The focus is on how to spend the FIA’s funds at grass roots level – something that will have a wide appeal.

Ben Sulayem was a staunch supporter of Max Mosley, and as such followed the former president’s lead in transferring his allegiance to Todt at the last elections in 2009. However as early as 2010 there were rumours that he would be willing to stand against Todt in 2013.

Given that like Ward he has support from Mosley’s former followers his candidacy would split that backing – unless they end up combining forces.

A cynical view is that Ward has in effect done the ‘dirty work’ by drawing attention to ethics and complaining about Todt’s alleged breaking of FIA rules, so Ben Sulayem can step into the fight with doubts having already been raised in the minds of voters. Ward is very serious about the need for reform in the FIA, but is believed be willing to step aside and back a third candidate who adopted his agenda for change.

If Ben Sulayem’s candidacy is confirmed he will probably get the full support of the Middle East region, which will damage Todt’s prospects of retaining his job. He’s also said to be popular with the African region.

It’s intriguing to note that Ward’s manifesto suggests that the FIA should have a President and CEO, and adds that the FIA should “restrict eligibility for FIA Presidential election to Club Presidents or Senior Office Holders nominated by their clubs.” Ward himself does not fall into that category.

The Gulf News reports a spokesman for Ben Sulayem as saying “At this stage, he has seen David Ward’s manifesto and has now asked to see Jean Todt’s manifesto as well. Any decision he makes after that will be based on what is best for the FIA going forward.”

Mark Webber’s 10-place grid penalty has put a focus on the ‘three strikes’ system, introduced to give some meaning to the previously rather pointless awarding of reprimands.

Webber was unlucky enough to be the only driver to already have two in his 2013 account. So who else has earned one this year and thus has to be a little careful over the remaining six races? Here’s the full list, in alphabetical order.

F Alonso, Stopping on the track (Singapore, Race)

J Bianchi, Failing to stop for the weighbridge (GB, Qualifying)

V Bottas, Failure to slow for yellow flags (Canada, FP1)

P Di Resta, Causing a collision (Italy, Race)

L Hamilton, Failure to enter the pit lane correctly [bollard] (Belgium, FP2)

C Pic, Re-joining the track in an unsafe manner (Belgium, FP2)

K Raikkonen, Below minimum time for SC lap (Monaco, Race)

N Rosberg, Failure to slow for yellow flags (GB, Race)

A Sutil, Driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit entry (Australia, Qual)

In addition Lotus has two reprimands, for an unsafe release in FP2 at Silverstone, and because a team member (actually a Renault engineer) was not wearing a helmet during Romain Grosjean’s stop in Singapore. Although there is no totting up system for teams a repeat of a similar offence could earn a stiffer penalty.

Back in June the business media first reported that F1 Group co-owner CVC Capital was interested in bidding for IMG, the long established sports management and media group.

Last week more details emerged, with Sky linking CVC to a consortium that includes Bahrain’s Mumtalakat (a shareholder in McLaren) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (backer of the country’s Grand Prix). They are reportedly aiming for a 60/20/20 ownership split.

IMG is a successful and multifaceted business, and is obviously of interest to CVC in its own right. However the fact that other F1 related entities are involved in the bid raises the tantalising prospect of IMG becoming involved with CVC’s highest profile investment. Indeed a well placed source told this writer in Singapore that IMG “could be the future of F1.”

In other words while we have been speculating for years about which individual might one day replace Bernie Ecclestone, we should now consider that a corporate entity in the form of IMG is being teed up for the role.

One of IMG’s key strengths is in media rights, and its website claims that it is “the world’s largest independent distributor of sports programming,” and that it “distributes across all forms of media, including TV, audio, fixed media, inflight and closed circuit, broadband and mobile.” The latter two categories would seem to be ripe for exploitation by F1.

IMG has been on the fringes of F1 for decades, since Jackie Stewart first teamed up with company founder Mark McCormack in the sixties. Later the company managed other top drivers, including Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, and most recently Heikki Kovalainen, although the Finn jumped ship earlier this year.

However, it’s long been the paddock consensus that Ecclestone is no great fan of IMG, and compared to other sports, the company’s involvement at the top level of motor racing has been relatively limited. Will that now change?

Other major bidders are also in the hunt, so there’s a chance that CVC will lose out anyway. But if it does win it will be fascinating to see if its plans for IMG really do overlap with F1…

New Jersey may have appeared on the latest unofficial 2014 F1 schedule, but sources continue to suggest that the race won’t make the final calendar, due to be agreed by the World Motor Sport Council on Friday.

The latest version, showing a triple header of Monaco, New Jersey and Canada on consecutive weekends, is regarded by teams as being completely unrealistic, with there being zero chance of getting the freight from Europe in time due to massive logistical issues.

Bernie Ecclestone can’t use the June 14-15 date, because it has been blocked for Le Mans by the FIA – a provision that he must have agreed to. Although there have been suggestions that the ruling could be changed a more likely scenario is that Bernie has given the race a token date in order to fulfil his obligations, while knowing that the New Jersey promoters won’t be able to fulfil theirs, and it will be cancelled. One good source suggested that at this stage June 2014 would in any case be too early and that the emphasis is already shifting to 2015.

Meanwhile Mexico is set to be confirmed for November 2014. Charlie Whiting and a Tilke representative visited the Mexico City venue recently and plans for revisions to the track – including moving the famous esses towards the infield to create more run-off – are in hand. The promoters also want to build a new pit complex.

The battle for the FIA presidency continues to ramp up as candidate David Ward has engaged in a battle of letters with one of Jean Todt’s key supporters.

Ward has maintained from the start that Todt acted improperly by garnering support from the FIA regions while travelling the world on FIA business.

Last week Jorge Tomasi, President of the Automobile Club of Uruguay, wrote to Ward expressing his displeasure at the accusation. Sources close to Todt suggest that Ward has misjudged the mood with an approach that could be deemed condescending to FIA members.

Ward has now responded with a letter of his own.

A release from the Ward camp today began: “David Ward has warned that his rival Jean Todt has ‘jump started’ the FIA’s election race, breaking rules that threaten to undermine the fairness of the FIA’s 2013 presidential contest.”

In his letter to Tomasi Ward said: “The use of support letters well in advance of the Presidential election period a serious breach of the FIA laws, rules and regulations… They should not have happened, and the breach of the rules should be investigated and subject to an appropriate penalty. ”

He added: “At the very least it would be in the best interest of the FIA if all the support letters signed before 6^th September now be revoked. By declaring them to be null and void, all the clubs involved would be released from any obligation they feel they may have unwittingly made before the election process had officially begun. The FIA membership can then engage in the election process transparently, without prior commitment, and make their choice based on a fair comparison of the candidates and their respective manifestoes.”

Todt himself has yet to publish a manifesto or issue any kind of formal press statement, but clearly this battle is going to get messier.

The Tomasi/Ward letters can be found here:

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/118437eec0352cad047fd181b/files/Jorge_Tomasi_letter_to_David_Ward.pdf

Click to access DavidWard_Letter_to_Jorge_Tomasi_23Sept13.pdf

Jenson Button dropped from third to seventh in the closing laps of the Singapore GP, but the McLaren driver insists that he would not have done any better had he gone for a different strategy.

Button joined Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in trying to run from the safety car to the flag without an extra pit stop, but while they were able to keep up a good pace, Button fell back when his tyres gave up.

“We took a punt on the strategy,” said Button. “I don’t know how we thought we’d do 35 laps on a set of tyres! I suppose Kimi did. But for us, we really struggled on traction. All weekend the supersoft tyre has been working really well, and the prime feels like a completely different tyre. I personally have been struggling on that tyre to get it working, which is the same problem I had here last year. But we got some good points on the board, seventh isn’t too bad. But the last 10 laps were mighty painful!”

Button admitted that he might have been better off had he not used up his tyres even earlier by working so hard to keep Kimi Raikkonen behind him.

“The problem was I had Kimi behind me for so long, about 20 laps. I just didn’t want to let him past. It’s easy to say it would have been the right thing to do now, but when you’re racing you’re not letting anyone past, especially Kimi! When he got past and he pulled away at 3s a lap I realised it was gone, fighting for a podium or anything close to that. Seventh isn’t too bad, and I don’t think whatever strategy we did today would have been any better than that.

“You never really know what’s going to happen to the tyres. If you look at what happened in Monaco a couple of years ago, with Seb doing most of the race on the prime tyre, we thought we’d give it a go. It didn’t work for us. We finished basically where I think we would have finished if we’d pitted.

“The thing that impressed me here was the Lotus pace. When Grosjean was out there he was setting purples the whole time, and Kimi obviously showed the pace. How he did that many laps on a set pf tyres when he was fighting to get past me I really don’t know.”