BMW joins Ferrari in F1 quit threat

(GMM) BMW has joined Ferrari in hinting that it is willing to quit formula one if the 'two-tier' budget cap is imposed for 2010.

The newly-published regulations for next year offer teams the option to be limited to a 40m pounds sterling cap, affording them more technical freedoms than their big unlimited-spending rivals.

Max Mosley's revolution has enraged Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, and BMW motor sport director Mario Theissen revealed on Tuesday that the board of the Munich manufacturer is similarly unimpressed.

"A two-class formula one is not attractive to BMW," the German said at a media event in Munich.

The BMW board re-approved the BMW-Sauber project in February, but Theissen warned that if the landscape in F1 dramatically changes, it would have "the same impact on the project".

The heated situation makes the meeting of the F1 teams alliance FOTA in London on Wednesday crucial.

Theissen expects the gathering to be a long one, but as Bernie Ecclestone suggested this week, the chasm between the big teams' position and that of the FIA president may not be unbridgeable.

But to the German press, he said of Mosley's 40m cap: "In one go you cannot just evaporate by a factor of three. A moving path, for example over two or three years, would be possible."