Teams to Meet this Week Again without Ferrari

World Champions Ferrari will be absent tomorrow when Formula One team bosses meet to discuss an initiative to slash costs and restrict testing.

The proposal, signed last month by all of the 10 teams except Ferrari, seeks to restrict testing to just 10 days during the season.

"We will not be there," a Ferrari spokesman said of the meeting to be held in London. "This date was not available to us due to previous commitments."

The other teams left Ferrari isolated at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix when they called for measures they said could secure next year's threatened British and French Grands Prix.

Ferrari are resistant to any reduction in testing - since they have their own tracks in Italy and a special relationship with tyre maker Bridgestone.

Team boss Jean Todt said at Interlagos Ferrari was in favour of reducing costs but had not been invited to the meetings with other bosses and did not agree with the initiative.

"I am sorry to say that what was presented is not sensible," the Frenchman said afterwards. "This paper, you can just throw it away."

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who made sure other team bosses signed up in Brazil, said Tuesday's meeting would still seek to move on.

"We're very hopeful we can move on from where we left off in Brazil," he told Reuters today. "The next stage is Ferrari signing up or the rest of us agree to do it without them. We can't do anything about tyres but we can just decide we're not going to test more than 10 days."