Zoom For some teams, F1 is their main business

Yet another meeting of the F1 teams' alliance FOTA has been scheduled for this week.

After the series of get-togethers at Monaco last weekend netted no concrete result, it is believed the scene of the next meeting will be London.

With Friday's deadline for official entries looming, and Williams now one of three outfits to lodge paperwork, a resolution is not yet in place that would cause existing teams to abandon their threats to quit the sport at the end of 2009.

However, it is rumoured that - like Williams - fellow racing teams like McLaren, Brawn and Force India could follow suit and also meet the May 29 deadline, even without a final outcome in the dispute.

It is believed that, unlike the car and energy drink makers, the pure racing teams cannot afford to miss the deadline and risk being locked out of the theatre of their core business.

At the same time, potential new teams - including David Richards' Prodrive outfit - have recently indicated that they might hold back their entries until an agreement is reached on the 2010 regulations.

"We will have to see what happens this week," Ferrari President and FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo is quoted as saying by Italy's Corriere dello Sport.

The Italian, backed by fellow dissident competitors including Toyota, Renault, BMW and Red Bull, added: "We will participate in the next season's World Championship if we have a proper F1."

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM