Briatore: List of new F1 hopefuls 'a joke, provocation'

The list of potential new entrants onto the 2010 Formula 1 starting grid in the top flight's budget-capped era is 'a joke' and mere 'provocation' by FIA President Max Mosley, Flavio Briatore has blasted - as the FIA-FOTA dispute shows no signs of reaching a resolution and the spectre of a 'breakaway' series intensifies.

Following a meeting between the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) and the sport's drivers in Toyota's motor home over the weekend of the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul, it emerged that it would not only be the teams to walk away should Mosley persist with the introduction of his controversial ?40 million cap.

Jarno Trulli argued that 'something should budge, must move, otherwise there will inevitably be a split', adding that 'Mosley must understand there are some things that cannot happen' and that 'with these rules we are completely out'.

Former team-mate and double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso went even further, claiming that 'if the manufacturers cannot sign up for F1 and they organise a parallel championship, that would be the most interesting [thing] - I prefer to race in any other category before the new F1' [see separate story - click here].

Now the Spaniard's boss, Renault F1 managing director Briatore, has waded further still into the row, echoing Ferrari's contention that the list of hopefuls bidding to join the grand prix grid next year - including Prodrive/Aston Martin, Lola, Team USF1, Campos Meta 1, Lotus/Litespeed GP, Team Superfund, March, N.Technology, Epsilon Euskadi and Formtech/Brabham Grand Prix Limited - is not of a sufficiently high calibre to maintain F1's status as the very pinnacle of international motorsport.

"Nobody wants a war between the teams and the FIA," the outspoken Italian re-iterated, speaking to Formula1ru.ru. "The question is to understand why we have such a situation. I believe that we will find a solution soon, because it's better to speak about sport, not politics. I think every time you speak about politics you damage sport.

"In qualifying [in Istanbul] you saw less than a second separating 16 drivers - and that's our goal. We want to race against everybody in Formula 1, but we want to make sure that new teams are ready to race in F1. The list of candidate teams from the federation is a joke, provocation. The FIA must have its limits too.

"We want to know the priorities of the sport, we want clear rules and we want to have interesting races. We want to work in co-operation with Max and we want to change the rules, because we are Formula 1, not politicians. In the past, the federation has done good work with cost-saving, but we need a referee not a ruler."