Ferrari loses legal bid against FIA

The Maranello outfit was told by French legal authorities on Wednesday that it did not have a valid reason to block plans for a £40 million voluntary budget cap.

The move means that next week's entry deadline for the 2010 championship will go ahead, leaving current teams a few days to resolve their opposition to the regulations.

Ferrari had gone to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris because it believed that the FIA's introduction of the regulations had been in breach of a technical veto that the team has over future technical rule changes.

The FIA argued, however, that the veto was no longer valid - and that Ferrari had also not used the available opportunities to impose its right.

It was also suggested to the court that imposing an entry deadline of next week was important to help secure the future of new teams in the sport - who need as much notice as possible so as to get their entries in place.

Ferrari has joined several other teams in saying that it will not lodge an entry to the 2010 world championship unless changes are made to the rules for next year.