While eight existing teams are threatening to abandon the championship and race elsewhere, on the other side of the dispute, the FIA president Max Mosley is refusing to drop his insistence that a budget cap be applied from 2010.

"Everyone understands the risk of a disaster, but at the same time nobody is doing anything to prevent it," Italian Ricardo Patrese, who for many years held Rubens Barrichello's record for the number of grands prix contested, told Germany's Die Welt.

Also frustrated is Olivier Panis, the former French driver who at the weekend drove an Oreca prototype at the Le Mans 24 hours.

"For me it's ridiculous," the veteran of 158 GPs told motorsport-magazin.com when asked about the situation in F1.

"I am loving this season, because Brawn GP is doing a great job and some other drivers are standing on the podium.  But the politics are a joke," said Panis.