Ferrari cash in on new deal with Ecclestone

Fernando Alonso’s fifth place can be seen as a positive for Ferrari (EPA)

Ferrari are believed to have followed Fernando Alonso's shock win in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix by concluding a lucrative deal with the Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, receiving significantly better payments under a new Concorde Agreement to which the majority of teams are said to have agreed over the race weekend.

Ecclestone announced on Saturday that most of them were prepared to commit to the new agreement, which takes the sport's commercial management beyond 2012. They include the top three teams, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing. Sauber and Toro Rosso, who use Ferrari's engines, are believed to have followed suit.

The situation regarding McLaren and Williams, the sport's second and third oldest and most successful teams, is not yet clear.