So it's still all up for grabs then and this is just the first skirmish. Ferrari have got the bit between their teeth using every thing available by launching the legal case. I wonder what Bernie is saying to Max this evening?
The FIA's crunch meeting with teams ended without agreement on Friday as the governing body refused to compromise over plans for a two-tier category.
Max Mosley said there had been 'friendly' discussions with teams but that the FIA was not willing to back down over its plans for a £40 million cap, or the 29 May deadline for entries to the 2010 world championship.
The teams have now gone into another meeting to discuss their response to the FIA's stance.
"It was quite a friendly meeting, but in the end all that happened was that the teams have gone off to see if they can come up with something better than the cost cap," Mosley told reporters after the Heathrow meeting.
"We explained we cannot put back the entry date, as this has all been published, and we cannot disadvantage the potential new teams who will come in. But we are prepared to listen to whatever they have to say.
"In the meantime, the regulations are as published. We have explained that we want everyone to race under the same regulations. We have explained that we would like all of the teams to come in under the cost cap and that is what they have gone off to consider.
"We have said that we cannot see why anyone wouldn't want to operate under the cost cap, and it would mean a gradual relaxation of the technical regulations - which all the engineers would want. We said in the end the choice was between intellectual freedom and financial constraint, or intellectual constraint and financial freedom - which is what they have had up until now.
"We have pointed out, and it is something the engineers have said, that current F1 consists of endless refinement at enormous expense and we want to move away from that and have invention and creativity, but we can only do that if we restrict the cost - because if we have unrestricted cost nobody would be able to afford it.
"I think some of the teams agree with that idea, and some don't, and they have gone away to discuss it."
Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and the Red Bull teams have already declared that they will not enter the 2010 season under the rules as presently proposed by the FIA, and when asked if that remained the case, Mosley replied: "Well, as things stand, yes that is the situation."
It also emerged today that Ferrari has lodged legal action in the French courts to block the 2010 rules - claiming their introduction was a breach of a technical veto the Italian team has.
"During the meeting it became apparent that Ferrari has made an application to the French courts, and I don't know the details, but it is to apply for an injunction to stop us doing what we want to do," Mosley explained. "So that is where the situation rests as far as Ferrari is concerned."
The FIA president added that the discussions had extended to talks on a new Concorde Agreement, but that this issue also remained unresolved.
"Then they asked about the Concorde Agreement, and we said that we would be prepared if there was agreement on all of the other issues to resign the 1998 Concorde Agreement, and extend it for another five years," said Mosley.
"But there was not agreement between them and Bernie [Ecclestone] on the commercial side, which is unsurprising because they have been talking about it for two and a half years and still not reached agreement."
By Jonathan Noble, Today autosport.com
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