Zoom Seeking a full grid, with or without Ferrari

The only remedy for rebel teams left off the final 2010 entry list might be for them to buy one of their smaller rivals, Max Mosley has warned.

Entries for next year's championship can be lodged from this Friday, and the deadline is one week later.

But submitting the form, and subsequently the 309,000 euro fee, is akin to accepting the controversial budget cap rules, and it is therefore unlikely that many of the current teams will do so.

"If we don't have enough entries to fill the grid, which we probably don't, they (the teams) know they can come later. There's just a danger there might be too few spaces for those outside," the FIA President said in an interview with BBC Sport.

"What might happen is that the team that is outside when the music stops, they'd probably have to buy one of the small teams or something. They should think about that before they don't put an entry in," warned Mosley.

The Briton is expecting only a handful of entries by May 29: probably Williams, Brawn and Force India, and then prospective new entries like USGPE and Lola.

With established teams holding back and interested parties waiting to see how the current talks conclude, simply extending the May 29 deadline would allow breathing room and avoid late-entry fees. However the FIA has not yet mentioned that possibility despite the uncertainty surrounding the regulations.

Certainly Mosley is not expecting a quick outcome to the dispute, even though the teams are getting together for more talks ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

"It might take most of the summer," he admitted, "because no one's really up against it until they've got to start deciding what car there're going to build for 2010. "

Just as Ferrari claims it was pushed into its court action due to the FIA's behaviour, Mosley says the governing body had to act because teams were obstructing efforts to open the doors to new competitors.

"When it became apparent that any of the manufacturers might stop at any moment - because Honda did - we knew we had to bring new teams in.

"They said 'well, we'll give you guarantees we'll continue', we said 'let's have the guarantee', (but) no guarantee appears. So then we said 'well, we'll have meetings to discuss how to bring teams in', (but) no meeting," Mosley continued.

"I think what they may have hoped is, we would just sit there and wait and wait and wait, and then it would be too late for the new teams to come in and then they would have complete control of the situation.

"Well, we couldn't do that, so we had no choice but to take a decision when we got to the limit of time," said Mosley.

He also insists the sport could live without Ferrari, and is fully prepared to see F1's most famous team walk away.

"Oh yes, absolutely, otherwise you've got to give up governing the sport and just let Ferrari do it. The moment we said 'we can't function without Ferrari', then they could just dictate all the rules," explained Mosley.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM