Bernie Ecclestone has announced that the "majority of the current Formula 1 teams" have agreed to sign a new Concorde Agreement, binding them to the sport beyond 2012.
The sport's commercial supremo made the unexpected announcement in a statement on Saturday morning - naming Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull as being among the teams to have agreed to the terms beyond the end of the year.
"I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula 1 teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula 1 after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year," said Ecclestone
While the other teams in question were not mentioned in the short statement on Ecclestone's own Formula1.com website, nor confirmation of whether the respective parties had actually put pen to paper on the deal, the news comes as a welcome relief for the sport given the last Concorde negotiations in 2009 proved explosive and took F1 to a brink of a devastating split.
The Concorde Agreement is a tri-partied document between the commercial rights holder, FIA and the teams which sets out the commercial terms for competing in F1.
The teams were believed to have been pushing for an increased share of the sport's commercial revenues in the new agreement.