Though they may not see entirely eye-to-eye on the controversial new budget cap that has provoked so much debate within Formula 1 in recent weeks, Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone have nonetheless united to round upon the top flight’s oldest and arguably most famous team Ferrari – with one dismissing notions that the Scuderia is indispensable as ‘nonsense’ and the other claiming the way they have gone about opposing the initiative has been idiotic.

There is set to be a further meeting between the teams in the guise of the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) and FIA President Mosley in Monaco today (19 May) in a bid to reach an agreement that satisfies everybody, and averts the threat both of a ‘two-tier’ F1 – with some competitors subscribing to the optional £40 million limit and others not – and of current entrants walking away.

Thus far Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and Red Bull have all vowed to pull the plug should the unpopular rules not be changed in time for the 2010 campaign, with the former taking the dispute up a notch by seeking a legal injunction against the cap in a French court. Mosley is expected to permit the teams until 22 May (Friday) to come up with an alternative solution to the escalating expenditure in what is the world’s most expensive sport, leaving them just a week to then sign up for next season – but he is adamant that despite the enduring stalemate as the clock ticks down, there is no ‘crisis’.

“I don’t think it will happen,” the 68-year-old contended of the pull-out threats. “There is this suggestion that there is some sort of crisis, but I don’t think there is a crisis. We were absolutely up against the deadline for new teams, and if a new team is going to come into F1 they have got to know they have got an entry and they are in. We’ve already left it very late, and that is why it was necessary to have an absolute deadline.

“Now that has been done, they will apply to enter and we will look at the applications and take a decision. Then there will probably be some vacancies, and other teams may decide to enter later or not as the case may be. There won’t be a crisis of any kind, if indeed a crisis at all, until March 2010 when we go to Melbourne. There is plenty of time.

“The people who are up against it time-wise are new teams, because you cannot nowadays just start an F1 team at short notice. That is all underway – and we will see how the new teams look. There are a very large number of people who have expressed an interest, and a significant number of them are serious. The difficulty is that there are going to be more serious teams than the potential three places if all the existing teams enter, so we are going to have to take a view on that.”

Having already engaged in a bitter war of words with Ferrari and FOTA President Luca di Montezemolo, Mosley re-iterated his prior assertion that F1 ‘could survive’ without the only team that has competed in every campaign since the official inception of the world championship all the way back in 1950 – but both he and Ecclestone are equally confident that it will not come to that, with the head of the governing body even going so far as to accuse the scarlet brigade of being afraid of taking on their rivals on a level playing field.

Moreover, it has been reported that Stefano Domenicali only found out about the injunction by text message during last Friday’s FOTA-FIA meeting – a situation Mosley described as almost laughable, with Ecclestone telling British newspaper The Times that Ferrari ’should have [taken the injunction out] before now – idiots’.

“I thought that was quite original,” Mosley remarked, “to send a team principal in without informing him of his team’s intentions. I think he was slightly embarrassed. The idea that they are indispensable is nonsense. It’s a little bit like poor [Ayrton] Senna; he was the most important driver in 1994, but when he very sadly got killed Formula 1 went on. Lotus were very important once too; so were Brabham.

“I would be very surprised in the end if [Ferrari do leave], because they have been saying we are going to leave – yet they seek an injunction to try and get the rules not changed. If they were going to leave, you would think they would just leave. When all the dust settles, sense will prevail. At the moment everybody can posture and take positions, as it will not be an issue until March 2010 – and my view is that Ferrari will race in Formula 1 next year.”

“They’ve applied for an injunction – I’d be surprised if they get it,” he added, according to the Daily Mirror. “If things go as they should go they are going to have to make their mind up. If they want to come racing, they come on the same basis as everyone else. Simply being there and spending more money is not really fair – and it’s not in their interests. They’re saying we have violated an agreement with them. And obviously we’re saying absolutely not.”

“Formula 1 without Ferrari is not as good as Formula 1 with Ferrari, but it is still Formula 1 and it would work perfectly well. It would be very sad to lose them, but otherwise you’ve got to give up governing the sport and just let Ferrari do it. The moment we say ‘we can’t function without Ferrari’ would mean they could dictate all the rules. We can’t have that. They are fully capable of competing with the other teams even if they only have the same money. They have very clever, talented people – they don’t need three times what everyone else has.”

Having already made concessions in abandoning the ‘two-tier’ aspect to the new regulations – with the budget cap now set to be in force for all competitors, only at a figure yet to be determined – Mosley also brushed off suggestions that the situation echoes the infamous ‘breakaway’ threat of four years ago.

“I think the chances of a breakaway are smaller this time,” he is quoted as having said by the Daily Mail. “After all, we are giving them a chance to race and spend less money. Who can say [what happened to Honda] won’t happen to Toyota, BMW, Renault, whoever?

“The £40 million budget excludes engines, drivers, motor homes and promotion. We have a little scope to take other things out, but what we don’t want to do is put the new teams into a position where somebody can spend more money than them as that would be unfair. When you are already down to ten teams, with two spare spaces, then there is a powerful argument to get new teams in – but if you say to people it is €100 million to compete, they say they can’t do it at that cost.”

“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,” he added, speaking to the BBC. “They (the existing teams) 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.

“I think what they may have hoped is [that] 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 they (FOTA) 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.

“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. We are very confident we will attract new teams – we’ll probably have six or seven serious applicants. 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.”

Whilst Mosley may be expecting only a handful of entries when the 29 May deadline dawns – from such as present incumbents Williams, current world championship leaders Brawn GP and Force India as well as prospective new boys Prodrive/Aston Martin, Lola and US GPE – Sir Frank Williams is confident that the situation can yet be resolved, telling the Daily Mail: “We still have work to do among ourselves, but I can’t see anyone not being prepared to race next year.”

Following a meeting of its board at Maranello, Ferrari has announced that it won’t lodge an entry into the 2010 Formula One World Championship unless plans for an optional £40 million budget cap are changed.

A statement issued by the Scuderia following the meeting revealed its objection to the plans put forward by FIA president Max Mosley, and stated that it will join Toyota and Red Bull in withdrawing from the sport if the budget cap is pushed through.

All three teams have expressed concern over the possibility of F1 becoming a two-tier championship if the budget cap is enforced, with teams adhering to the cap being given greater technical freedom compared to those that elect to spend an unrestricted amount.

“The decisions taken [during the World Motor Sport Council meeting on 29 April] mean that, for the first time ever in Formula 1, the 2010 season will see the introduction of two different sets of regulations based on arbitrary technical rules and economic parameters,” the statement read. “The Board considers that if this is the regulatory framework for Formula 1 in the future, then the reasons underlying Ferrari’s uninterrupted participation in the World Championship over the last 60 years – the only constructor to have taken part ever since its inception in 1950 – would come to a close.

“The same rules for all teams, stability of regulations, the continuity of the FOTA’s endeavours to methodically and progressively reduce costs, and governance of Formula 1 are the priorities for the future. If these indispensable principles are not respected and if the regulations adopted for 2010 will not change, then Ferrari does not intend to enter its cars in the next Formula 1 World Championship.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who also leads FOTA, has openly criticised the proposed plans, with FIA chief Mosley responding by stating that Formula One would go on without Ferrari – although it would be ’sad’ to lose the team from the sport.

The statement from Ferrari further criticised Mosley and the FIA for the way in which the budget cap proposal has been handled, arguing that there should have been greater consultation with the teams.

“The Board also expressed its disappointment about the methods adopted by the FIA in taking decisions of such a serious nature and its refusal to effectively reach an understanding with constructors and teams,” it read. “The rules of governance that have contributed to the development of Formula 1 over the last 25 years have been disregarded, as have the binding contractual obligations between Ferrari and the FIA itself regarding the stability of the regulations.”

Di Montezemelo has now been instructed to look at alternative options for Ferrari’s racing activities if quitting Formula One becomes a reality.

“Ferrari trusts that its many fans worldwide will understand that this difficult decision is coherent with the Scuderia’s approach to motor sport and to Formula 1 in particular, always seeking to promote its sporting and technical values,” the statement concluded. “The Chairman of the Board of Directors was mandated to evaluate the most suitable ways and methods to protect the company’s interests.”

Jenson Button will start the European leg of the Formula One season from the front after taking a dramatic pole for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The points leader left it late to secure his place at the head of the field, starting his final lap with just seconds remaining in the session and stealing pole from Sebastian Vettel as Red Bull prepared to celebrate pole for the young German.

Vettel had to settle for second ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second of the Brawns, with the Brazilian alongside his countryman Felipe Massa on row two.

Mark Webber and Timo Glock share row three ahead of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, while Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica round out the top ten having lapped noticeably slower than the rest of the cars to make it through to the top ten.

They’ve proved they can do it in the wet; now can they do it in the dry as well? That is the question on everybody’s lips in the Formula 1 paddock heading towards the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, as Red Bull Racing strives to prove its crushing Chinese success was no flash in the pan.

In sweeping both the opposition and the elements aside to prevail in Shanghai last weekend, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber sent out a firm signal that whilst they may not need a ‘double-decker’ diffuser to triumph, when they do eventually get their hands on one they may just be unstoppable. The interest arises, however, from Brawn GP’s conviction that had the heavens not opened then it would instead have been the third consecutive victory for the ex-Honda F1 concern, rather than its energy drinks-backed rival’s breakthrough glory.

There seems little doubt that Red Bull and Brawn are the teams of the moment in F1 in 2009, having shared the top step of the podium between them over the opening three races of the campaign and seeming to have the legs of everybody else in the field. On balance – and until RBR does roll out its split-level diffuser – you would have to say that Brawn remain the favourites to win in Sakhir, but it may be a close thing. Red Bull certainly took a step forward in Shanghai, and in Vettel and the rejuvenated Webber they have a driver pairing every bit as potent as that of world championship leader Jenson Button and experienced Brazilian Rubens Barrichello at Brackley. One thing is for sure – if they do steal Brawn’s thunder again, then Red Bull will be striking fear into the hearts of every one of their competitors.

Having similarly begun the season with a double-decker, Toyota and particularly Williams have still to make optimum use of it, and with the other teams rapidly playing catch-up in the development of their own, time is fast running out. Both squads endured a miserable outing in China, with Nico Rosberg again demonstrating strong pace only to run out of luck when it mattered the most on race day, and Jarno Trulli being rear-ended in spectacular fashion by Robert Kubica, the Pole’s BMW-Sauber travelling distinctly quicker than the Italian’s TF109. Rosberg and Williams, certainly, are overdue a change of luck, and Toyota are well aware of the need to make hay while the sun continues to shine or else risk kissing goodbye once again to their hopes of breaking their grand prix duck this year.

The two teams that arguably took the biggest step forward in Shanghai, by contrast, were Renault and McLaren-Mercedes, with Fernando Alonso’s storming run to the front row of the grid in qualifying for the former – admittedly on low fuel – the undoubted highlight. The Spaniard was undone on race day by a misguided strategy choice, and he reckoned afterwards that the rain had disguised the true potential of the Régie’s updated R29 – the first of the ‘non-diffuser’ seven to trial out a split-level version. Whether Renault has made as much progress as the double F1 World Champion believes will likely be more apparent this weekend, when precipitation assuredly will not be an issue.

McLaren, for their part, racked up their first double points-scoring finish of 2009 in China with fifth spot for Heikki Kovalainen and sixth for team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and the Woking-based outfit is clearly hoping for more of the same – if not a touch better – this weekend. Expectations may not be quite so high, however, at chief adversaries Ferrari and BMW. The Scuderia remains all at sea, with precious little performance seemingly able to be extracted from its F60, costly reliability woes on the rare occasions when pace is in evidence – as Felipe Massa found out to his great chagrin last weekend – and, should nul points again be the outcome in Bahrain, the scarlet boys’ worst start to a campaign in history. BMW, too, are struggling – KERS or no KERS – with fears that Kubica’s Q1 exit in Shanghai may be the hallmark of a season that goes on to fall far, far short of the title goal. Ferrari and BMW were two of just three teams – the other being Toyota – to conduct any winter running in the desert kingdom. It will be interesting to see if it hands them a boost this weekend.

That leaves, finally, Scuderia Toro Rosso – for whom astonishing rookie Sébastien Buemi performed quite brilliantly in the Chinese Grand Prix, fully meriting the point that ultimately came his way – and Force India. The former finally seems to be making some inroads in 2009, with its young Swiss charge in particular turning a number of heads, whilst its Silverstone-based rival will simply be hoping that the moment when Adrian Sutil abruptly exited the scene stage-left in Shanghai barely a handful of laps from the chequered flag did not mark its one and only chance of points this year washed away in the downpour…