FIA says £40m budget cap going ahead

Leading financial representatives from both the FIA and FOTA met in London on Monday to try and reach a settlement on next year's rules that would be acceptable to both parties.

There had been some hope that new rules could be put in place after preliminary agreement was reached between FIA president Max Mosley and several representatives of FOTA in a meeting last week.

However, the FIA has been left disappointed that this week's meeting achieved nothing, after FOTA's representatives said they could not discuss the rules, and the teams' proposals were rejected as being ineffective.

A statement issued by the FIA on Tuesday said: "As agreed at the meeting of 11 June, FIA financial experts met yesterday with financial experts from FOTA.

"Unfortunately, the FOTA representatives announced that they had no mandate to discuss the FIA's 2010 financial regulations. Indeed, they were not prepared to discuss regulation at all.

"As a result, the meeting could not achieve its purpose of comparing the FIA's rules with the FOTA proposals with a view to finding a common position.

"In default of a proper dialogue, the FOTA financial proposals were discussed but it became clear that these would not be capable of limiting the expenditure of a team which had the resources to outspend its competitors. Another financial arms race would then be inevitable.

"The FIA Financial Regulations therefore remain as published."

The FIA has become increasingly frustrated with the failure to find a solution to the row, and on Monday it accused factions with FOTA of deliberately trying to scupper a deal.

F1's current teams have been given until Friday to drop the conditions attached to their entries, or risk being left off the grid for 2010.

With part of their conditions being that the 2010 regulations are scrapped, the FIA's latest stance makes it increasingly unlikely that the matter can be resolved before the deadline.