Stoddart makes plea to Ferrari

Stoddart said it behoves Ferrari not to block moves to restrict testing, which most F1 teams believe are necessary to curb escalating costs and make the sport affordable again, simply to preserve its own dominance.

"Ferrari's total, perpetual dominance cannot be good for any sport and I think they need to realise that," Stoddart told the News of the World. "They cannot resist making changes at all costs; they have to think about the future of Formula 1."

The Australian has been one of the prime movers behind the plans to drastically reduce the teams' in-season allowance of testing days. Ferrari immediately objected to the initiative on the grounds that it would not significantly reduce costs, and recently issued a counter-proposal that would limit teams' testing to 15,000km during a season - a suggestion that was rejected outright by the other nine F1 teams and dismissed by Stoddart as "a piss-take".

Despite his view that Ferrari's current hegemony is unhealthy for the sport, Stoddart insisted that the plans to slash testing are not simply motivated by a desire to clip Maranello's wings.

"I don't want to take anything away from Ferrari and the success they have achieved," he said. "But they should not be holding out against changes that will improve the sport by lowering costs and making it more competitive just because those changes might not do anything for them."