BMW could exit F1

BMW has joined Ferrari in hinting that it is willing to quit Formula One if a 'two-tier' series is introduced next season via the optional budget cap The newly-published regulations for next year offer teams the option to be limited to a £40m affording them more technical freedoms than their big unlimited-spending rivals. Max Mosley's cost-cutting revolution has enraged Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, and BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen revealed on Tuesday that the board of the Munich manufacturer is similarly unimpressed.

"A two-class Formula One is not attractive to BMW," the German said at a media event in Munich. The BMW board re-approved the BMW Sauber project in February, but Theissen warned that if the landscape in F1 dramatically changes, it would have ‘the same impact on the project’.

The heated situation makes the meeting of the Formula One Teams' Association in London on Wednesday crucial.

Theissen expects the gathering to be a long one, but as Bernie Ecclestone suggested this week, the chasm between the big teams' position and that of the FIA President may not be unbridgeable. But to the German press, he said of Mosley's £40m cap: "In one go you cannot just evaporate by a factor of three. A moving path, for example over two or three years, would be possible." Ecclestone of course is keen to see the costs reduced – as is the FIA and most of the teams – but in his case, the F1 CEO would be able to legitimately turn around to the teams and reduce the payments they receive from Formula One Management and therefore increase the profits made for CVC Capital who own the commercial rights to the series.