Ferrari leads Formula 1 walk-out threat

The prospect of Formula One's hierarchy enforcing radical new budget regulations for the 2010 season has angered some teams so much that four of them - Ferrari, Toyota, Red Bull and Renault - are threatening to quit the sport.

They are incensed by the plan to introduce a £40m budget cap and create a two-tier championship. Fota, the teams' umbrella organisation, will meet with Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone in London to discuss the changes. With the deadline for next season's registration coming up on May 29, the teams now have only two weeks to reach a compromise with FIA, the sport's governing body.

The cost-cutting measures, which would not include driver salaries, engine costs and marketing, have been proposed as a way for Formula 1's smaller teams to survive the current economic downturn, and encourage new teams to join the grid.

These measures would see the teams which agreed to the budget cap subject to more lenient technological restrictions than those that rejected it. It has been estimated that this difference could amount to an advantage of as much as three seconds per lap.

Ferrari have endured a terrible start to this season's championship, and currently languish in sixth place with drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen having only accrued six points between them. They are the team which have protested the most at these developments, and Luca Di Montezemolo, their flamboyant president, insists that his threat to quit the sport is no bluff. But will Formula One really start next season without its most iconic competitors?

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

Maurice Hamilton, the Guardian: As ever, Ferrari's objections seem to cover every base. They do not wish to have a £40m budget cap imposed and, even more important, the subsequent laying-open of their books for examination by the FIA. As a major employer in the town of Maranello, Ferrari do not want, as they put it, to make more than 450 people redundant.

Andrew Benson, BBC Sport: F1's history is littered with examples of Ferrari threatening to pull out if they did not get their way over some rules row or other. Yet they remain the only team to have competed every year since the start of the F1 world championship in 1950. That is why few people within F1 will think there is any realistic chance Ferrari will not be on the grid next year.

Edward Gorman, the Times: Di Montezemolo may be frustrated, but he has no answer to the FIA president's central agenda, which is to make Formula One cheaper in difficult times, to ensure that it survives and that new teams come in and operate in a profitable way.

Will Gray, Eurosport: Although the budget cap has had some resistance, McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh quite rightly countered that all teams are given spending limits by their shareholders, so they already operate with a budget cap. It's just that the cap differs between the different teams - and with a bit of discussion, and a confidence that it can be correctly policed, there may be a way to get this agreed.