It is possible formula one teams will be limited to a budget cap in 2013, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The budget cap idea saw the sport almost implode amid the bitter political war of 2009, when proposed by controversial former FIA president Max Mosley.

But it is back on the agenda in 2012, and according to new rules – where a majority of teams can now push through a change – it could be imposed next season.

“Ten of the 12 teams are in favour,” Auto Motor und Sport said, referring to the push to have cost-cutting moved from the FOTA gentleman’s agreement to the actual sporting regulations.

It means that the two dissenting teams, the Red Bull-owned Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will have no say.

“The cost to be competitive in formula one at present is too high,” the boss of the energy drink company’s premier team, Christian Horner, said recently. “I don’t think anybody will dispute that.

“The debate is how we achieve it.”

Not only that, the German report said nine teams are in favour of Mosley’s old budget cap idea, with annual expenditure limited initially to EUR 170 million and then diminishing to 100 million over a few seasons.

Internet hackers have threatened to wreak havoc as they sided against formula one over the sport’s decision to push ahead with the highly controversial Bahrain grand prix.

The well-known ‘hacktivists’ Anonymous brought down F1′s official website on Friday, slamming Bernie Ecclestone as “evil” and threatening the “worst sh**storm” if the track action continues to proceed this weekend in the troubled island Kingdom.

“Attacks on their (the teams’) computer servers could prevent the race taking place,” the Daily Express newspaper speculated.

Anonymous also took control of another specialist website, posting a statement that accused the sport of supporting the Bahrain government despite the country’s “human rights situation” and saying F1 will now “be punished”.

In an awkward official press conference on Friday, team bosses continued to support the sport’s decision to press ahead with the race.

“Ultimately we’re a race team,” said McLaren and FOTA’s Martin Whitmarsh. “We’re here to go motor racing and that’s our number one priority.”

With F1 currently scheduled to arrive en masse in Bahrain next week, a crisis surrounding the possible cancellation of the island Kingdom’s race is continuing to deepen.

The teams have now denied Bernie Ecclestone’s claim that they can simply choose to skip the event.

“That would not be possible,” said a statement issued by the teams association FOTA. “Teams are unable to cancel (a) grand prix.”

Bahrain, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign, accusing some of deploying “scare-mongering tactics” designed to force the race’s cancellation.

The race organisers released a report conducted by Lotus, following the Enstone based team’s recent reconnaissance mission to Bahrain.

“We came away from Bahrain feeling a lot more confident that everything is in hand,” Lotus is quoted as having reported.

The team, however, reacted angrily, accusing the organisers of having released a “confidential” document.

“Lotus F1 Team is one of 12 contestants of the … world championship and we would never try to substitute ourselves for the FIA”, said the Enstone based team.

Surmised Times correspondent Kevin Eason on Twitter: “(It’s) getting messy…”

At the same time, F1 chief executive Ecclestone became fully immersed in the political situation on Tuesday, reporteding personally phoning Bahrain’s crown prince to express concern about the jailed hunger striker.

An Amnesty International report published this week had called for Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s release, amid claims he is now close to death and being force-fed.

But the Bahrain government, through its information affairs authority, insisted that only police and rioters are being injured in “infrequent and remote clashes”.

Also weighing into the argument was Sir Jackie Stewart, the eloquent triple world champion, who said: “I would go.

“The commercial rights holder has sold a package, at a price, and it is part of the constructors’ agreement that they attend the races that have been published,” he told the Guardian.

“As a team owner I would have to honour my agreement both orally and legally.”

Whatever happens, the Bahrain saga – stretching back now over a year – is not good news for the future of the island Kingdom’s calendar spot.

“Maybe we wouldn’t renew it (the contract),” Ecclestone admitted to the BBC. “We’ll have to look and see.”

Mercedes could quit formula one or challenge Bernie Ecclestone in court, after it emerged top rivals Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have agreed new commercial deals.

With the FOTA alliance crumbling, F1 chief executive Ecclestone announced on Saturday that he has agreed terms with the “majority” of teams.

In addition to the three top teams, it is believed Lotus, Toro Rosso, Sauber and Force India have also signed up.

That leaves Mercedes and Williams apparently yet to agree, while it is believed the three bottom teams Caterham, Marussia and HRT have not even seen a copy of the new Concorde Agreement.

Mercedes would not comment publicly.

“We would like to ask for your understanding that our team currently has nothing to say on this matter,” said a spokesman.

Behind the scenes, however, high-level sources close to the Brackley based team admitted they are unhappy that the terms of the deal heavily favour the top three teams.

One bonus, for example, is for teams who have not changed their name.

Media outlets including PA Sport and London’s Telegraph were told by the sources that the Stuttgart marque could challenge Ecclestone’s methods against European Union competition law.

Or the carmaker and engine supplier could simply quit F1.

“It is understood the carmaker and parent company Daimler are prepared to play hardball”, wrote Tom Cary in the Telegraph, referring specifically to European laws involving the abuse of a dominant position.

Other authoritative publications, also apparently briefed behind the scenes by Mercedes, referred specifically to the same laws.

On the record, Mercedes’ competition vice-president Norbert Haug said in Malaysia: “I’m not sure who has signed. We’ve nothing currently to say.”

 Rival formula one teams complained when Sky News published a report suggesting Ferrari and Red Bull will receive special deals for the next Concorde Agreement.
There has been speculation the Bernie Ecclestone-headed Formula One Management ordered the article be pulled from the internet because it divulged secret plans about the teams’ deals and a $10 billion stock market floatation.

But the Financial Times (FT) reports that it was parent company BSkyB’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch who intervened because the article “had upset formula one racing teams”.

The producer of Sky’s new dedicated F1 channel reportedly “called his bosses from Melbourne”, where the broadcaster was making its debut as Britain’s new full-time live host.

He said “the article had caused a strong negative reaction from some F1 teams”, people familiar with the situation reportedly told the FT.

“The piece was withdrawn for further review,” a BSkyB spokesman confirmed. “We stand by the story and, following that review, took the decision to re-publish on Monday.”

The teams alliance FOTA, which no longer involves Ferrari and Red Bull, reportedly met in the Melbourne paddock on Sunday “to discuss how to respond to the (Sky) report”, the FT continued.

The fact the Geneva-based body no longer features two of the major top teams apparently gives Bernie Ecclestone the opportunity to agree deals with them, forcing their rivals to follow suit.

“FOTA can’t sign anything with anyone,” Ecclestone scorned, before declining to discuss the reports of Ferrari and Red Bull’s special deals.

Ferrari and CVC also declined to comment, but an unnamed senior team executive dismissed the apparent deals as “a pipe dream”.

Another said the story was a typical example of Ecclestone’s “divide and conquer” tactics.

 Many team bosses reportedly left the Melbourne paddock angry late on Sunday, amid claims Ferrari and Red Bull have agreed special deals for F1′s future beyond the current Concorde Agreement.
Rumours of the top teams’ deal – part of a reportedly planned $10 billion stock market floatation of the sport – began to swirl following the publication and then retraction of a Sky News internet report.

The report was reportedly based on a leaked copy of the draft 2013 Concorde Agreement, which according to London’s Telegraph newspaper “could hand Ferrari a direct stake in the sport”.

Red Bull, the reigning champions, “also stand to make a huge sum”, the report claimed, adding that the energy drink-owned team as well as Ferrari will be asked to nominate directors for F1′s holding company board.

Team boss Christian Horner revealed Red Bull is “in discussions with FOM” about a new Concorde Agreement, adding that talks are “progressing reasonably well”.

How the other major teams – like FOTA members McLaren and Mercedes – fit into the picture is unclear at present, but the Times newspaper reports that there are “no seats” at the boardroom table allocated for them.

An unnamed senior team executive described the rumoured special deals for Ferrari and Red Bull as “outrageous” and “against every facet of European competition law”.

Ferrari declined to comment.

Horner added: “We want one (a Concorde Agreement) which reaches into the future … a floatation is really down to the shareholders.

“It is not really the teams’ business,” he added. “It is more of a question for Bernie (Ecclestone) or CVC.”

Many paddock insiders, however, believe the deals are already done in principle, leading one angry rival team boss to blast: “Formula one stopped being about racing a long time ago”.

“There will be an end game to this,” he added. “We just have to figure out what it is and what it means for the people in the teams who want to go racing and not be involved in this kind of thing.”

 Hot on the heels of the new technical controversies, the 2012 season has also kicked off in the sport’s high-intrigue world of politics.
A fascinating blog post by Sky News’ City editor Mark Kleinman has been pulled from the internet just hours after it went live.

It was about “F1 finance and control allegedly involving Ferrari, Red Bull and (the sport’s owner) CVC”, according to veteran journalist and broadcaster Maurice Hamilton on Twitter.

“Has someone spoken out of turn?” wondered the Times’ Kevin Eason.

The Telegraph’s Tom Cary said the rumour is that a $10 billion stock market floatation for F1 could be in the works “with Ferrari (and) Red Bull getting special deals”.

“There is no smoke without fire with this one,” added Eason. “No wonder Ferrari and Red Bull ditched FOTA.”

The document that currently governs F1 and its finances, the Concorde Agreement, runs out this year, and now F1′s most famous team – Ferrari – and the reigning world champions are outside the trade union FOTA.

“Coincidence? Highly unlikely,” said Cary.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone insists no deals have been done yet.

“I’d like to try to do something before the season starts,” he said this week. “I don’t want it dragging on.”

As for his take on FOTA, “Ferrari would never go do a deal with those clowns,” the 81-year-old scowled.

 Red Bull has been isolated from F1′s other teams, as the FIA is asked to step in and police their cost-cutting efforts.
Last year, there remained suspicions the energy drink owned team – the winner of the past two world championships – flouted the ‘resource restriction agreement’ (RRA).

But the agreement was only an initiative of the teams’ trade union FOTA, which has now essentially collapsed.

Moreover, the agreement includes only financial sanctions for breaches, and Red Bull was never penalised anyway — Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo said recently he didn’t push the issue “Because I didn’t want it to be an excuse for our performance”.

A letter has now been addressed to FIA president Jean Todt requesting that the governing body step in and make the RRA an official sporting regulation.

Breaches would therefore carry a sporting sanction, such as the loss of points, or race bans.

“Yes, it (the letter) was unanimous. Most of the teams have signed it,” said Lotus team boss Eric Boullier.

He would not, however, confirm the identity of the teams that did not sign.

But a report in the Kolner Express newspaper claims “only two teams did not sign: Red Bull and the sister team Toro Rosso”.

Mercedes is committed to the crumbling teams association FOTA, team boss Ross Brawn insists.
The Geneva based alliance has lost the support of top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, and also smaller outfits Sauber, Toro Rosso and HRT.

It is rumoured Lotus could be the next to go.

But McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh remains the chairman, and media outlets on Wednesday quoted Mercedes’ Brawn as saying the German marque remains “very committed” to FOTA.

“We believe it’s a great shame that we’ve lost some of the members from FOTA because I think we may live ultimately to regret that,” he is quoted by Sky Sports.

Contemplating the reasons for the FOTA split, Brawn explained: “When there is outside pressure it pushed FOTA together. Now, there is not so much, the natural competitiveness of the teams is pushing it apart a bit.

“I hope we don’t regret it … because one of the objectives was to find the right solutions for F1, not just for individual teams.”

 Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”

Red Bull has not ruled out patching up its off-track quarrel with rival formula one teams.
The reigning and back-to-back world champions have pulled out of the F1 teams’ alliance FOTA, essentially over the debate about the gentleman’s cost-limiting ‘resource restriction agreement’.

Subsequent meetings have taken place in the absence of Red Bull and fellow new non-FOTA members Ferrari, Ferrari-powered Sauber and Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso, indicating a worrying political split ahead of the crucial negotiations for the next Concorde Agreement.

But team boss Christian Horner has revealed that Red Bull officials will meet with key FOTA members on Monday.

“Nothing’s ever set in stone but for the time being we feel it’s right to step out of FOTA,” he is quoted by the Associated Press.

It has been rumoured that Red Bull baulked at moves to further limit the scope of aerodynamic development, whilst rival carmaker-linked teams remain less limited on engines.

“There has to be a willingness to recognise this and then progress can be made,” Horner, speaking at Red Bull’s title celebratory event in Milton-Keynes, is quoted by the Guardian.

He said Ferrari and Red Bull’s withdrawal from FOTA “has stimulated discussion and that can lead to something positive. There is a way back for all of us”.

 With up to five of F1′s twelve teams no longer members, the future of the FOTA alliance is on shaky ground.
HRT pulled out at the start of the year, with team boss Colin Kolles chiding the Geneva-based association for being “just a name and not really existing in the real world”.

But it was the exits of F1′s biggest budget Red Bull and Ferrari that have rocked the foundations of the body, which was set up amid the teams’ political battles with Bernie Ecclestone and former FIA president Max Mosley.

“FOTA fulfilled its purpose in the crisis period,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko said this week, with team boss Christian Horner adding: “In the last 12 months it hasn’t quite been clear what was the purpose of FOTA.”

Indeed, the group has been at loggerheads over the resource restriction agreement, with accusations Red Bull breached the non-FIA pact and risked being sued by its rivals.

Ferrari is also unhappy with the direction of the cost-cutting, insisting in its explanatory note last Friday that F1 “cannot be the only professional sport where it is practically impossible to do any training”.

Ferrari-powered Sauber confirmed its departure this week, and Toro Rosso – using the same Italian engine – has refused to comment so far.

The BBC reports that FOTA may actually have barred the Faenza based team’s officials from attending the most recent meetings, ostensibly due to its obvious links with Red Bull and Ferrari.

Those emergency FOTA talks in the last few days have been about the future of the alliance, with Mercedes’ Norbert Haug insisting on Tuesday that the association “is absolutely vital”.

But it is unclear if some other teams will follow the moves of the newly-confirmed non-FOTA members, with a Lotus spokesman telling the BBC: “A lot of talks are going on but, so far, our team is still a member of FOTA.”

A Force India spokesman added: “There are ongoing meetings, so it is premature to comment at this stage.”

Red Bull pulled out of FOTA because the other teams were trying to curb the team’s dominance.
That is the inkling of the energy drink company’s F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko, referring to the failed talks over the next cost-limiting resource restriction agreement (RRA).

Red Bull had been accused of breaching some of the articles in the existing agreement, and talks finally collapsed at the Brazil season finale.

Marko is quoted by the Kleine Zeitung newspaper as claiming that Red Bull’s dominance was being specifically targeted by the other teams as the cost-cutting talks went on.

“We are the best in aerodynamics and so the others only wanted to cut back the (development of) aerodynamics,” he charged.

It is turbulent times politically for Red Bull, but team driver Mark Webber seemed blissfully unaware as he began his post-season wind-down this week in Tasmania.

Asked by the Daily Mail about his employer’s withdrawal from the teams association, the Australian answered: “Haven’t got a clue, mate — doesn’t bother me.

“Didn’t know any of that had happened,” added Webber.

 Red Bull quit FOTA because the teams association had ceased to have a good purpose, Dr Helmut Marko said this week.
Late last Friday, after many international news editors had already called it a day for the week, the team as well as Ferrari confirmed that they had pulled out of the Geneva-based body.

Formed amid the political war with former FIA president Max Mosley, the alliance gave the teams a strong negotiating position as well as a platform to reduce costs with the gentleman’s ‘resource restriction agreement’ (RRA).

It is the RRA that caused the tension, with Ferrari struggling recently despite having F1′s biggest annual budget, and Red Bull accused of breaching the spirit of the cost-cutting rules.

“FOTA fulfilled its purpose in the crisis period,” Red Bull F1 consultant Marko said on Austrian Servus TV on Monday, “and so there was a reduction in costs, but as far as achievements there was nothing else.”

Agreed team boss Christian Horner: “In the last twelve months it hasn’t quite been clear what was the purpose of FOTA.”

Added Marko: “If at the meetings we cannot agree even to the lowest common denominator, one wonders what is the point of all the effort.”

Some believe the FOTA split gives Red Bull and Ferrari powerful individual positions to negotiate lucrative deals with Bernie Ecclestone under the next Concorde Agreement.

Others worry that F1 teams will now return to the unsustainable financial arms races of the past.

“We have decided at this time to withdraw and now we will see how it develops,” said Horner ambiguously.

For the moment, the divide has F1′s biggest spenders Red Bull and Ferrari on one side, and powerful competitors including McLaren and Mercedes on the other.

“I think it is absolutely vital that FOTA is existing,” carmaker Mercedes’ racing chief Norbert Haug told reporters on Monday.

France’s autohebdo.fr reports that the remaining FOTA members will meet for talks on Tuesday.

Said the Mercedes team’s chief executive Nick Fry: “We’ve certainly hit a bump in the road but I believe that work will continue in the background to try and resolve this and we will do whatever we can to support that.”

FOTA is failing due to the competitiveness of the formula one teams, according to Bernie Ecclestone.

The teams’ alliance is reeling from the high profile loss of top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, due mainly to the disagreement about the cost-cutting resource restriction agreement.

The death of unity is music to F1 chief executive Ecclestone’s ears, ahead of his crucial negotiations over the next income-distribution Concorde Agreement.

“I think (Ferrari and Red Bull) believed (FOTA) didn’t quite do what it was intended to do,” he is quoted by the Financial Times.

“It is very very difficult for all these people who are competing with each other to agree anything that’s going to stop their ability to win.”

The 81-year-old said the FOTA split has almost certainly ended the teams’ cost-cutting agreement.

“I think it was probably dead before it started,” said Ecclestone.

“It’s pretty difficult (for a team) to ever be able to say ‘this is what we’ve done’. You get all that nonsense, ‘oh, they’re cheating, because they’ve spent more than they should have’.”

Ecclestone denied he has already made separate post-2012 Concorde deals with Red Bull or Ferrari, and would not rule out negotiating collectively with all the teams.

But Autosprint believes the FOTA split will definitely “benefit the more important teams”.

And the story will continue to run, with Auto Motor und Sport predicting that FOTA could take Red Bull to court for quitting the resource restriction agreement after team boss Christian Horner signed the new deal in Singapore.

The German report said Red Bull is claiming Horner was not authorised to sign it.