Bernie Ecclestone and five of F1's major carmakers have signed a memorandum of understanding on the sport's future.

The Grand Prix Manufacturers Association - comprising Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Renault, Toyota and Honda - committed to F1 to the end of 2012 at last week's Spanish Grand Prix and Ecclestone's signature now signals a breakthrough in discussions between his management organisation, the teams and the governing body, the FIA.

"The manufacturers all signed it in the end," Ecclestone told autosport.com.

"We've now signed our part and it is now just a question of sending it to the lawyers.

"The negotiations have taken a while and we spent a lot of time discussing issues which were not real, honest issues."

The MOU document essentially sets out an agreement on F1's future commercial structure which is believed to award the teams somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of the sport's total annual revenue.