Formula 1 teams warn FIA of 'financial disaster'

As AUTOSPORT reported last week, FIA president Jean Todt has given up on a push for an F1 cost cap in 2015 because the six teams in F1's Strategy Group said they no longer supported it.

Without their backing, and with Bernie Ecclestone not convinced either, the plans had no chance of being passed through the Strategy Group for inclusion in the 2015 rules.

That decision has infuriated the smaller outfits, who spoke out against the matter immediately after the Bahrain GP.

Now, AUTOSPORT has learned that four teams - Force India, Sauber, Caterham and Marussia - have written to Todt expressing fears of a doomsday scenario if the cost cap is ditched.

It is understood they are also furious about the way the six teams in F1's Strategy Group have derailed the plans for a cost cap.

Sources have told AUTOSPORT that the smaller outfits have made it clear to Todt in the letter that the Strategy Group should have no regulatory power to decide rules.

They go as far as suggesting to Todt that the current set-up could even be in breach of European competition law, and may be an illegal abuse of a dominant position.

It is understood that the letter makes it clear the four teams are unwilling to accept that the future of some outfits - which are dependent on effective cost control for survival - is in the hands of a process that they feel is neither transparent nor democratic.

And it warns of their belief that the FIA will be guilty of edging the sport to 'financial disaster' if it accepts the cost cap is dead.

The letter was sent to Todt prior to last week's FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, and it likely played a part in his decision to call all the teams together on May 1 for talks on cost cuts.

The six teams that sit on the Strategy Group are Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Lotus.