The FOTA appoints Oliver Weingarten as secretary general
The negotiations for the Concorde Agreements will soon begin. For this crucial issue, the teams are organizing and trying to gather the strongest support. That's why FOTA has just appointed Oliver Weingarten as executive secretary.
He is well-versed in sports business as he was previously the in-house lawyer for the Premier League, the British football league. This league hosts many wealthy individuals who invest in their teams. For instance, Tony Fernandes, the owner of Team Lotus, has just bought the Queen Park Rangers from Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore.
It is this experience that appealed to the association of teams, as Martin Whitmarsh, the president of FOTA, explains to Autosport: I’m delighted to welcome Oliver to FOTA, where his experience in the Premier League with his commercial, legal, and public regulatory expertise will be extremely useful to all the teams. The next few years will be crucial for Formula 1. By working closely with the FIA and FOM, FOTA will play an important role in shaping the future of our wonderful sport. Oliver will play an important role in this process.
Some may see in this news the teams’ desire to enlist the services of an expert in the legal management of commercial relationships between sports teams and political and commercial entities. This could be the first step that might lead to teams taking equity stakes, as Ferrari had hinted at the possibility before Martin Whitmarsh took it up.
The arrival of Oliver Weingarten is nevertheless linked to the departure of his predecessor in this position, Simone Perillo. After leading the negotiations of the current Concorde Agreements, he decided to take advantage of the more than tense political situation in Italy to try his own luck in this field. There is talk of a possible partnership with Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari, whose political ambitions have been fueling discussions for many years.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
