Saturday 7 June at 12:30 : The shadowy world of formula one politics has crossed the Atlantic from Paris to Montreal's Ile Notre Dame.

The big rumour in the paddock of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve late on Friday was that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is hatching a plot for a breakaway championship.

The news is a logical development in the highly contentious Max Mosley sex scandal, but Ecclestone's rift with the FIA president is actually much deeper than that.

As alluded to by the FIA president in a recent explanatory letter, Ecclestone and the F1 teams want Mosley's signature on a new and revised Concorde Agreement; a highly secretive document that binds the teams with the sport's separate commercial and regulatory aspects.

Team bosses met with Ecclestone for nearly two and a half hours on Friday, and speculation following the meeting is that - despite the notorious difficulty in getting F1 outfits to agree - unanimity on this issue is not far away.

"We want Max's signature on a new document," Bernie, 77, was quoted as telling The Independent earlier this week.

"He doesn't want to do that because he feels he has more power if he doesn't sign. But he doesn't need more power.

"The big manufacturers know just how much they want to spend to be competitive. We just need to write the regulation to achieve that, and move forwards," Ecclestone added.

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