Teams Won’t Rule Out F1 Breakaway

The Toyota F1 team is one of a number of teams refusing to rule out the possibility of a breakaway series after world motorsport governing body president Max Mosley refused to back down in the row over a proposed £40m budget cap.

Toyota’s F1 chief John Howett stated that moving to a new series is one of a number of options available to teams after Mosley indicated this week that teams are free to leave the F1 championship if they will not comply with new rules.

Howett commented: ‘We are not looking for confrontation but we need a broad option plan and looking at alternative series has to be one.’

Nine teams are seeking a compromise over a budget cap proposed for 2010. It had seemed that an agreement was close after meetings between the teams and the FIA around the Monaco Grand Prix.

Since then, the nine teams have made conditional entries to next season, requesting a more gradual and voluntary approach to cutting teams costs and a renewal of the Concorde Agreement that lays out their rights.

The teams have conceded that the row had reached a critical point but have thus far refused to look beyond 12th June, when the FIA confirms the teams for next season.

However Mosley’s latest statement suggests a resolution may again be some way away.

‘If you want to formulate your own rules, then you can organise your own championship. We now have a dispute and we will see who prevails. But we have the F1 championship. We draw up the rules for that, we have been doing that for 60 years and we will continue doing so.’

The F1 Teams’ Association (FOTA) – representing Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, Renault, BMW Sauber, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Brawn GP and Force India – wants to reduce its costs over the next three years.

Mosley conceded some ground over the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, admitting that the cap may be phased in for 2011 with an intermediate stage next season.

However he has appeared to reject the possibility of resurrecting the Concorde agreement – the regulatory and contractual agreement between the FIA teams that lapsed in 2007 – before a deadline demanded by FOTA.

Outside of the 10 existing F1 teams, nine other teams have confirmed lodging an entry with the FIA for the 2010 season including Prodrive, Lola, March, Litespeed, Epsilon Euskadi, US F1, Campos Meta1, Team Superfund, and N.Technology.