Teams seeking solution, not new series
Formula 1's current teams remain wholly committed to finding a solution to their dispute with the FIA over the future of the sport, despite suggestions from Max Mosley that they should go off and do their own series
With no solution yet in sight in the row over a £40 million budget cap for next year, the nine members of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) are awaiting a response from the FIA about the conditions they laid down for them to enter next year's championship.
They want a Concorde Agreement signed by next week, plus the current plans for 2010 regulation changes to be abandoned, in favour of their own proposals. The FIA is due to reveal the 2010 entrants on June 12.
Although the teams have not yet had an official response from the FIA about the conditions of their entry, Mosley suggested in an interview with Motorsport Aktuell that if FOTA was unhappy with the proposed rules it should form a breakaway championship.
BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen made it clear in Turkey on Thursday, however, that FOTA was far more interested in reaching a deal with the FIA than going off and doing its own series.
"We are now really committed to find a solution with the FIA to go forward together," he explained. "That is all I want to say at this point of time."
Theissen said that FOTA did not have any plans to meet this weekend to discuss the situation, although it would do so if the FIA responded.
"We would be ready to sit down immediately," he explained.
Although there have been some causes for optimism in the past week that the teams and the FIA were heading for a solution, Theissen was more cautious about the chances of the matter getting sorted by next week.
"I said after the meeting in Monaco that the situation is difficult, it is critical and it is not solved yet, and the same applies today," he said.
Theissen also revealed that the decision by FOTA to lodge conditional entries was suggested to them by Mosley.
"When we had the meeting with Max [Mosley] in Monaco, it was his idea to put in a conditional entry," he said.
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