Ecclestone: Two-tier will be scrapped

Formula 1's commercial rights holder also believes that the chances of any of the current teams carrying out their threats not to participate in the 2010 world championship are slim.

Under the current 2010 rules, teams can choose to either adhere to a £40 million budget cap and enjoy greater technical freedom, or continue to spend freely but run to more restrictive regulations, which some teams have estimated would leave them up to three seconds per lap slower than the capped teams.

The prospect of two parallel sets of rules was one of the main sticking points between the teams and the governing body, but Ecclestone believes the two-tier system is now highly unlikely to proceed.

"I think the most important thing that upset everybody, they didn't like, was this two-tier technical system, so I think it has been agreed that we shouldn't have that. We should have just one set of regulations," he told the BBC.

"I think everybody is more or less happy with the budget cap. Just how much. They'll go with it higher [than £40 million], maybe it'll be lower. It's a case of just sorting it out.

"Everyone will be under the same regulations."

He added that he had his own misgivings about the two-tier proposal.

"I always thought that was a bit stupid," Ecclestone was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. "It was important to get rid of it."

If the two-tier proposal was shelved, Ecclestone had no doubt that the teams currently planning to withhold their 2010 entries would return to the fold.

"I am confident all the teams will still be racing next year," he said.