Ferrari: Pull-outs not due to downturn

Toyota announced its decision to pull out of the world championship earlier today, citing the "current severe economic realities" as the reason for its abrupt exit.

But an item published on Ferrari's official website argued that Toyota and its fellow car makers' decisions had been prompted by a 'war on manufacturers' in F1.

"In reality the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers by those who managed the sport, than the effects of the economical that affected Formula 1 over the last years," it read.

The article reiterated Ferrari's belief that the independent teams that have been granted 2010 entries are not of the calibre of the manufacturer outfits.

"Formula 1 continues losing important parts: over the last 12 months Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and this morning Toyota announced their retirements. In exchange, if one could call it that, Manor, Lotus [because of the team of Colin Chapman, Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna, to name a few, there is hardly more than the name], USF1 and Campos Meta arrived.

"You might say 'same-same', because it is enough if there are participants. But that's not entirely true and then we've got to see if next year we'll be really as many in Bahrain for the first starting grid of the 2010 season and how many will make it to the end of the season."

The piece also made a cryptic comparison between F1's situation and an Agatha Christie mystery novel, and urged the sport to take action against those responsible for the pull-outs.

"It seems like a parody of Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Indians', published in England for the first time in the year 1939, but reality is much more serious.

"In Christie's detective novel the guilty person is only discovered when everybody else is dead, one after the other. Do we want to wait until this happens or should we write Formula 1's book with a different closing chapter?"

Ferrari's statement comes on a day when Renault - one of only three manufacturers left in F1 alongside Ferrari and Mercedes - is also evaluating its F1 future. The company is discussing its plans at an extraordinary meeting.