Briatore: F1 row must be solved

RENAULT boss Flavio Briatore insists a solution to the row over new rules for 2010 must be achieved “at all costs” when F1 chiefs meet for crisis talks in London today.

Toyota, Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault have all vowed to quit the sport at the end of the season unless plans for a voluntary £40m budget cap are scrapped.

Indeed, suggestions of a breakaway series have already been muted, and Briatore is calling on F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Max Mosley to settle on a compromise package to avoid an exodus.

Speaking on the possibility of a rebel category, Briatore said: “It is a remote hypothesis that everyone wants to avoid. “We are living in a difficult moment and we must find a solution at all costs. I hope Max Mosley and his men will mend their ways, in order to start over in full harmony.”

Mosley meets with the teams’ umbrella organisation FOTA for crisis talks today, looking to rubber-stamp his new budget cap, which he believes will give teams greater technical freedom. But the teams believe it will create a two-tier championship and refuse to submit their entries for 2010 before the 29 May deadline.

Ecclestone, however, has hinted that a compromise could be on the cards, saying: “They don’t want to leave Formula One and we don’t want to lose them, so we’ll get to grips with it.”