Ferrari is deadly ’serious’ and not ‘bluffing’ in its threat to walk away from Formula 1 over the FIA’s controversial and unpopular new budget cap, the son of the Scuderia’s legendary founder has insisted – as paddock cynics suggest the menace is ‘just posturing’.

Both former team owner Eddie Jordan and triple world champion Niki Lauda have rubbished the Maranello-based concern’s assertion that it is ready to pull the plug on F1 over what it contends would be a two-tier system of haves and have-nots by dint of a cap that is not only not compulsory, but also ‘not enforceable’ and not ‘possible to control’.

There are also fears that the regulations will be necessarily biased towards those teams that choose to adhere to the cap – with greater ‘technical freedoms’ available to capped competitors over their unlimited-budget rivals – and that reducing expenditure to a maximum of £40 million is unworkable in such a short space of time for squads that currently spend as much as £150 to £200 million a year.

Renault, Toyota and Red Bull have similarly signalled their intention to quit should the rules not be changed, with energy drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz – owner of the latter – reckoning that only two or three of the present outfits will remain should the governing body not back down.

Enzo Ferrari’s only surviving son Piero – who owns ten per cent of the famous Italian company, the top flight’s longest-standing and most loyal entrant as the only one to have competed in every single season since the official inception of the world championship all the way back in 1950 – has compared the situation to that of the 1980s, when his father had threatened to leave F1 in favour of the Indianapolis 500.

“He wasn’t bluffing,” he told British newspaper The Guardian. “He was serious – and so are we. Our first objection is to the budget cap, which we don’t believe it’s possible to control. The second is that it is wrong that a team accepting the budget cap has more freedom and different technical regulations.

“If we are on the starting line of a grand prix, we have to stay within the same regulations, the same technical specifications. It’s like soccer – in Italy we have Internazionale (Inter Milan), who are winning and they spend huge amounts of money for the best players, but in Serie A you also have a team like Catania, who have no money. Do you say to Catania, ‘you can play with twelve players’ and to Inter, ‘you must play with nine’? It wouldn’t be fair.

“This is what the new Formula 1 rules are like, though. They’re not acceptable at all. ¬Everybody on the grid has to start with the same rules, otherwise there’s no ¬competition and it’s somebody else ¬deciding who’s going to win.”

The cap has been implemented in an effort to restrict what had become ever-escalating expenditure in the world’s most glamorous and expensive sport, safeguard the future of existing teams in the wake of Honda’s shock exit back in December and attract new entrants to make the graduation, with three available extra slots on the 2010 starting grid. FIA President Max Mosley has argued that without it F1 will not survive the current global credit crunch – but Ferrari is adamant that there are other, more viable ways to save money.

“This is not because we want to spend money,” he insisted. “We want to save money. All the constructors are keen on reducing the F1 expenses, but you can reduce the expenditure without having a budget cap – and it’s not enforceable anyway.

“It’s difficult enough to enforce the technical rules, as was proved recently by the business of the diffuser, so how can you enforce or control a budget cap? A better way is by controlling the expenses on the technical side. We are doing it on engines and it will be done next year on the gearbox. We can even introduce limits on material costs – carbon fibre, maybe.

“I have good friends racing in NASCAR in the United States. They control the costs – the number of mechanics, for instance – and the teams are racing with the same rules for everybody. We could do something like that.”

A bitter war of words between Mosley and Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo late last month culminated in the former claiming that ‘the sport would survive’ without the scarlet machines. The Italian countered by intimating that in failing to adequately consult the teams over the regulation change and in effect steamrollering it through, the Englishman was breaking an agreement he had made with Ferrari in 2005 – guaranteeing the squad certain exclusive rights in exchange for the secret €100 million deal brokered by di Montezemolo that had quashed the danger of a manufacturer-led breakaway series. Piero Ferrari has hinted that the prospect of his team going elsewhere to race in the light of such a betrayal is far from beyond the realms of probability.

“He (Mosley) forgot any way of consulting what you might say are the actors of the show,” the 64-year-old pointed out. “I know that the economy is a problem for the world, but this kind of attitude and changing rules in this way is not going to save the economy.

“I strongly believe that if you look at the past of Ferrari, today’s image is borne from victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and sportscar and GT racing. Racing is in the DNA of Ferrari. My father started the business making and selling racing cars. We cannot forget our beginnings, and the passion of my father is still in the company. Everybody in the company loves racing, but we want racing with clear rules and starting from the same point – the same rules for everybody.”

The FIA International Court of Appeal has ruled that the diffusers used by the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams teams in the opening two races of the Formula One season is legal.

The double-decker system employed by the teams had led to controversy in both Australia and Malaysia after rival teams claimed it gave the ‘diffuser three’ an unfair advantage on track.

Appeals were lodged by rivals in both Melbourne and at Sepang, which were rejected by race stewards, leading to Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault appealing to the FIA over the matter. BMW Sauber and McLaren were also present at the hearing.

After a hearing of the Court of Appeal yesterday [Tuesday] in which teams had the chance to put forward their evidence, overnight deliberations were followed by a short statement from the governing body confirming that the diffuser system is within the rules.

It means that the top four in the championship standings – Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock – will not face the prospect of losing the points secured so far, while the remaining seven teams on the grid now face the prospect of redesigning their diffusers to match the system employed by Brawn, Toyota and Williams.

Renault, for one, are believed to have a prototype version of the system already, which could be used in China this weekend.

“The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship,” a short FIA statement read.

“Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

“Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.”

The much talked about USF1 operation is set to make its first major announcement before February is out, according to one of the two men instrumental in the programme.

Using his established links with SpeedTV, where he is a regular F1 reporter and analyst, former Williams team manager Peter Windsor confirmed that the team he is setting up with renowned engineer Ken Anderson expects to reveal more about the project live on air ‘potentially on 24 February’.

Initially treated as something of an early April Fools’ prank, the USF1 story has gradually gathered speed and, while its two co-principals have proven elusive when it comes to extracting greater detail about the programme, titbits of information have been slowly been put together to suggest that, sponsorship permitting, it could be on the grid, as planned, in 2010.

Speaking to his employer, Windsor revealed that the idea for the team had been in the pipeline for some time, with himself and Anderson working ‘behind the scenes’ to get the foundations in place, leading to the current situation where a formal announcement – something that ought to cement USF1’s credibility in the eyes of potential sponsors – should be aired in the coming days.

“Ken and I have been looking at the possibility of designing and building an F1 car in the USA for the past four years,” Windsor claimed, “so I guess the real surprise is that we were able to keep it quiet for so long. The news broke this week, but the real announcement is going to be live on SpeedTV, potentially on 24 February.”

Although the local media this week confirmed that the team would be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is expected that it will also seek out a European base from which to conduct the bulk of its race operations, given the shape of the calendar, which no longer features events at Indianapolis or Montreal.

According to Spanish newspaper Diario Sport USF1 – which Anderson insists will use American driving talent – could establish a satellite base in Spain, most likely close to one of the country’s established testing venues, although possibly alongside the established Epsilon Euskadi team in the north. Epsilon Euskadi has active programmes in both the Le Mans Series and World Series by Renault and has a wind tunnel that meets FIA standards and would complement the Windshear facility that is expected to provide the bulk of the development data as the team’s cars are designed and built in America..

“It’s all true,” admitted former Benetton F1 team manager Joan Villadelprat, now sharing responsibility at Epsilon Euskadi with erstwhile F1 designer Sergio Rinland, “but right now there is nothing definite, only conversations. First, we have to see what happens with the team. They thought they must have a base in Europe and they considered that Spain, where teams test for most of the winter, would be the ideal place.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has claimed that he does not expect to see any change in the Scuderia’s F1 line-up next season, dampening several paddock rumours.

Despite the rumours swirling about Kimi Raikkonen’s future at Maranello, and the possibility that Fernando Alonso is waiting in the wings to don a set of scarlet overalls next season, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo insists that he expects little change in the team’s 2009 line-up.

Raikkonen’s place in the team has come under scrutiny after a series of lacklustre performances that have dropped him 13 points off the championship lead with six rounds remaining in 2008. The Finn is keeping quiet on speculation that he may be considering retirement at the end of the season, despite suggestions that if he fails to win the title, or is asked to play second fiddle to team-mate Felipe Massa during the run-in to Interlagos, he may walk away after the Brazilian finale.

Ironically, it was Massa’s position in the team that was called into question after he failed to score in either of the first two rounds – in Australia and Malaysia – but the Brazilian has since established himself as the team’s best-placed title candidate, dominating the past two races in Hungary and Spain to move into second spot overall, behind McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso, meanwhile, was the talk of the paddock at the Monaco Grand Prix, when whispers suggested that he had inked an advance deal to join the Scuderia in 2010. Since then, however, the Spaniard has refused to talk about his plans for next season, either confirming that he will remain with Renault or move onto another team – with Honda currently leading the rumours – before taking up his place at Ferrari as many assume he will.

Montezemolo has not been the double world champion’s biggest fan, suggesting in the wake of the Monaco rumours that Alonso was too disruptive an influence to ever sit well at Maranello, and used this week’s group test at Monza to reiterate that he expected little to change for 2009.