Todt sounds F1 warning

Montezemolo, addressing the media at Monza on Saturday, said that Bernie Ecclestone is taking too much money out of the sport and an insider from another team commented: "It's something that has needed saying for a long time and I'm pleased he said it."

Ecclestone faces a legal dispute over the board composition of one of his companies with the banks that funded a 75% purchase of his SLEC organisation. Should he lose, it is not unfeasible that the banks could seek to remove Ecclestone from his position of influence.

Ferrari, having recently seemed to be in the Ecclestone/FIA camp, appeared to be re-aligning itself with the GPWC organisation that threatened to organise a breakaway championship if it is not happy with the commercial terms of any future F1 constitution beyond the end of the current Concorde Agreement governing the sport to the end of 2007.

"What Bernie Ecclestone has done in Formula 1 is great," Todt said Sunday evening, "we just have to be cautious that things can move quickly. The 2008 season is very close from where we are and the situation of F1 is not very strong."

Ferrari, of course, has long been seen as the richest team in Formula 1, until the arrival of Toyota, but Todt said: "Clearly I feel that we should share more of the revenues. For obvious reasons, as long as you have major manufacturers involved in F1 it will cost money, and then it is very difficult for the small teams to get engines and to find money. And the economic situation is not very good, so definitely there are some risks of losing teams next year - one, two or even three. And that would definitely damage Formula 1.

"On our side, it is clear that selling (just) 4500 cars and using F1 as a marketing tool and paying for everything, of course supported by our sponsors, makes things difficult. So we have to take that into consideration.

"We have seen a few teams disappear recently - Prost and Arrows, and others are really struggling. Then Toyota has come in, so the balance is not easy."

Of Ecclestone's dispute with those representing 75% of the F1 business's equity, Todt said: "We are following it but there is nothing we can really do. It is the banks' and Bernie's business. What we are saying is that we are willing to stay in F1 but we want to see more revenues."