Drivers and FOTA discuss F1 crisis

Starting at 1030 local time at the Toyota motorhome, all the drivers of the teams that are part of FOTA held discussions with the eight team principals within the organisation to discuss the current crisis.

Only Williams duo Nico Rosberg and Kazukia Nakajima, plus Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil were, like their team principals, absent.

The meeting comes amid mounting concern from drivers that their careers are being put on the line by the dispute between the FIA and the FOTA over cost cutting regulations.

It is understood that the Grand Prix Drivers' Association discussed the matter in its regular meeting on Friday.

Fernando Alonso also expreseed his own worries about his future again in Turkey, hinting that he was not keen on the future shape of F1 as proposed by the FIA.

"I prefer to race in any other category before in the new F1," he told the Spanish media. "A model similar to GP2 or F3 is not interesting for any driver, for any sponsor or for any circuit or television network. In that case it would be a category without any sense. We'll have to see what the options are.

"The teams have done their maximum: they have signed up for the 2010 championship. But you cannot suddenly move from a budget of 500 million to one of 45 million a year. It's possible in three years, which is what the teams are proposing. It's impossible for them to do more. Now the ball is on the FIA's court."

The double world champion went as far as suggesting that he would prefer to be in a series run by the FOTA teams.

"If the manufacturers cannot sign up for F1 and they organise a parallel championship, that would be the most interesting, because you would see the technology and the fastest cars in the world and, in the end, that's where the drivers want to be," Alonso said.