Todt critical of bosses meeting

In a statement outlining the Frenchman's position on an agreement between F1's nine other teams to substantially cut costs in Formula 1, he said: "Ferrari would never get in the way of staging historic races such as the British and French Grands Prix if all the teams want more than 17 races in a season."

Todt, whose signature is required in order for cost-cutting proposals put forward by the other teams over the weekend to become unanimous, expressed reservations on the issue. The Frenchman believes that there are considerations that have not been addressed by the agreement.

"Let's look at the detail: We wanted to go to one engine for two GPs in order to reduce performance and cost, moving from a life of 700kms to one of around 1400kms," he said. "In the statement put out on Saturday it is not clear whether the engine to be used in the four hours of free practice on Friday is the one that has to be used on Saturday and Sunday. I would like to know if there really is unanimity on this point between all those who signed the document. I doubt that is the case.

"On Friday, it emerged that there was a desire to have a sole tyre supplier starting in 2005. I have to say that it does not seem like an elegant solution to me, to have to exclude either Bridgestone or Michelin, without warning, and especially in view of the contracts that are in place. From our part, we would never betray one of our partners and I want to make it clear that as of Sunday morning, neither Bridgestone nor Michelin were aware of this situation.

"As usual, Ferrari is keen to work at improving safety and reducing cost on the basis of a carefully researched programme. This will be the aim over the next few weeks with a view to continuing with the work initiated by the FIA back at the meeting held last May.

"The proposal to restrict private testing will in no way help the smaller teams who currently do not use all the days of testing available to them under the current agreement. Finally, I'm amazed that despite the major players involved in this proposal, there is not the slightest mention of increasing income."