Teams could pay eye-watering $600m to compete in Formula 1 in 2026

Formula 1 teams are set to start talks with the sport's governing body and owners on a new collective agreement with wrangles over a number of thorny issues expected as the sport faces up to the price of success.

The current Concorde Agreement between the three parties runs until 2025, and often deals have only been secured at the last minute or after a period without a formal agreement.

But Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media, the American owners and rights holders of Formula One, said last week that he wanted to begin talks now.

Maffei's comments on an investor's call were well received by teams at the Miami Grand Prix, who saw no reason not to get down to business ahead of schedule.

"We haven't really started talking properly, but that's going to happen soon," said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who hopes the talks will be kept behind closed doors.

"It should happen in a constructive way, not maybe live-broadcasted and creating controversy," he said.

New issues to sort

Given the history of the usually very public debates around the Concorde talks, that may be wishful thinking from the Austrian, however.

While F1 is enjoying a boom, enhanced by the success of the Netflix series 'Drive to Survive' and strong growth in the United States, that very popularity is creating new issues that the talks must resolve.

There are understood to be several groups keen to enter the sport, with established US motorsport operation Andretti teaming up with General Motors to propose an Andretti Cadillac Team.

That bid is being headed by Michael Andretti, a former F1 driver and son of Mario Andretti, F1 world champion in 1978.

The Andretti family's rich history in motor racing, combined with General Motors and the Cadillac brand,