Formula One may have days rather than weeks to stave off a rival series with teams saying they are already well advanced in their preparations and fast approaching the point of no return. “I would say very short,” Toyota motorsport president John Howett told Reuters when asked after Sunday's British Grand Prix what sort of time was available before the situation became irrevocable. “If we start with the actions next week which we intend to, to move from a conceptual discussion to implementation phase, I think we will start to make commitments that then become very difficult to come out of.” Howett, vice-chairman of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) said a meeting of the governing body's world motor sport council in Paris on Wednesday would be important. FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, will attend that meeting along with FIA President Max Mosley, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and national federation representatives. The eight FOTA teams will then meet on Thursday. They announced last week that they would begin preparing for their own championship after failing to reach agreement with the International Automobile Federation on next year's rules. The FIA wants a budget cap to allow new teams in and to keep others in the sport but FOTA say they can achieve cost cuts by other methods. They also want greater transparency in the governance of the sport, with Mosley a clear target. Mosley has said he is sure a solution will be reached but he angered FOTA bosses at the weekend by jokingly designating some of them ‘loonies' (lunatics). That drew a stinging rebuke from Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, despite the Italian giving Mosley a lift to Silverstone in his helicopter. “I don't want to personally describe what Max is because in his private life we have already had a demonstration of what he was in the News of the World,” said Briatore, referring to exposure last year of the Briton's involvement in sex sessions. “If he is talking about lunatics and stuff like that, he needs to watch himself, to just do the best job possible for him, the teams and not go personal.” Howett said several would-be new competitors rejected by the FIA on their initial 2010 entry list had approached FOTA about joining them in a new championship but had been put on hold pending developments. Brawn GP chief executive Nick Fry said the rival series should be taken seriously. “The FIA meeting on Wednesday is critical to what happens,” he told Reuters. “The alternative championship is a very realistic proposition. It's not an idle threat as I suspect some people hope.”
