Zoom F1 heading for meltdown unless compromises can be reached

Red Bull has followed Toyota in declaring that it will not enter next year's world championship under the current regulations.

Toyota's team President John Howett made the threat this weekend in Barcelona, as other teams including Ferrari and BMW also openly baulk at the governance of the sport by Max Mosley and his plans for voluntary budget caps.

"Conditions at the moment are not so, that we would enter a team for next year," Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, said in an interview that will be published by Austria's Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper on Monday.

The billionaire suggested that the other ‘manufacturer teams’ will also not take part. "Of the teams now, only two or three will remain," Mateschitz added.

The FIA's deadline for 2010 entries is May 29th.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said after a two-hour meeting of the FOTA teams on Sunday that public threats about not meeting the deadline are ‘not helpful’.

However, it is expected that, depending on the outcome of a meeting with Mosley in London next week, FOTA could announce a sweeping boycott of the May 29 deadline.

E.A. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM